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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 












































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THE 


Parables of the New Testament 

SPIRITUALLY UNFOLDED 


WITH AN INTRODUCTION 
ON 

SCRIPTURE parables; their nature, use and 
INTERPRETATION 


Rev. EDWARD CRAIG MITCHELL 

Pastor of the New Jerusalem (or Swedenborgian) Church, St. Paul, Minn. 


S' : 

\> V 

9 1888 7 

2 3 / 

NEW YORK 

NEW-CHURCH BOARD OF PUBLICATION 

20 COOPER UNION 




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I 


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• AA5* 


ENTERED, ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, IN THE YEAR 1888 , BY EDWARD CRAIG 
MITCHELL, IN THE OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS, 

AT WASHINGTON. 


The Library 
of Congress 

II —H IT ' 1 

WASHINGTON 


AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED TO 


i©ifc 




PREFACE. 


This volume is intended to be a plain, pra<5tical application of the 
New Testament Parables to our daily life, from the standpoint of 
the New-Jerusalem Church. 

And it is published, because there seems to be need of such a 
work: and the field is unoccupied. 

No single work on the Parables can well be exhaustive of the sub¬ 
ject. There are several aspects in which each parable may be viewed 
and interpreted : and, in each case, the author has selected that as- 
pedl which seemed best adapted to practical use. 

As it seems best to have the explanation of each parable complete 
in itself, considerable repetition is unavoidable. 

Regarded from a literary standpoint, the author is indebted to the 
theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg for the general method 
of interpretation, and for the principles and fatfts of correspondences 
and representatives. And in several instances, the author has also 
adopted suggestions of other commentators. 

The texts of the parables, and the citations of other texts, have 
been omitted, in deference to the suggestion of the Publishers, to 
make the bulk of the volume as small as possible. 

Three of the articles in this volume (Nos. I., V., and XXXVI. of the 
Parables,) have previously appeared in New-Church periodicals. 

The author contemplates, in the future, a companion-volume on 
the Parables of the Old Testament. 


St. Paul, Minn., OSlober, 1887. 


E. C. M. 



















































































































. 


































CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION. 

pagt 

Scripture Parables; Their Nature, Use and Interpreta¬ 
tion,. g 

THE PARABLES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 

I. The House on the Rock, and the House on the 

Sand,. 27 

II. Old and New Cloth, Wine and Bottles^. 37 

III. Children in the Markets,. 50 

IV. The Sower,.:... 62 

V. The Tares among the Wheat,. 90 

VI. The Mustard Seed,. 104 

VII. The Leaven,. 115 

VIII. The Hidden Treasure,. 127 

IX. The Merchant Seeking Pearls,. 139 

X. The Draw-Net,. 148 

XI. The Instructed Scribe,. 159 

XII. The Unmerciful Servant,. 167 

XIII. The Laborers in the Vineyard,. 181 

XIV. The Two Sons. 194 

XV. The Wicked Husbandmen,. 207 

XVI. The Marriage of the King’s Son,. 224 

XVII. The Fig-tree Putting Forth Leaves. 245 

XVIII. The Ten Virgins,. 258 





















8 


Contents. 


page 

XIX. The Talents,. 270 

XX. The Seed Growing Secretly,. 283 

XXI. The Blind Leading the Blind,. 295 

XXII. The Two Debtors,. 306 

XXIII. The Good Samaritan,. 318 

XXIV. The Importunate Midnight Friend. 332 

XXV. The Rich Fool,. 344 

XXVI. Waiting, with Loins Girded and Lights Burning, 356 

XXVII. The Barren Fig-tree,... 368 

XXVIII. Taking the Lowest Seats. 377 

XXIX. The Excuses,. 387 

XXX. Building a Tower, and Making War,. 400 

XXXI. The Lost Sheep,. 411 

XXXII. The Lost Piece of Silver,.!. 422 

XXXIII. The Prodigal Son,. 432 

XXXIV. The Unjust Steward,. 459 

XXXV. The Rich Man and Lazarus,.. 471 

XXXVI. The Unprofitable Servant,. 483 

XXXVII. The Unjust Judge,. 49S 

XXXVIII. The Pharisee and the Publican,. 508 

XXXIX. The Good Shepherd,. 520 

XL. The Vine and Its Branches,. 532 























INTRODUCTION. 


Scripture Parables; their Nature, Use , and In¬ 
terpretation. 

DEFINITION. 

The word “parable” is derived from the Greek word 
parabole, to throw beside, to compare. It is difficult to 
give a distinctive definition of a parable; for an ordinary 
definition either excludes some essential element of a par¬ 
able, or includes other forms of figurative expression. 
Worcester’s Di 6 tionary thus defines parable: “a short 
tale, or fablej founded on something real in nature or life, 
from which a moral is drawn, by comparing it with some¬ 
thing of more immediate concern.” Archbishop Trench 
defines it thus: “A parable is a fi&itious, but probable, 
narrative, taken from the affairs of ordinary life, to illus¬ 
trate some higher and less known truth.” The parable 
differs from the fable, because, in the fable, inanimate and 
unreasoning things are pi 6 tured as a 6 ting as human be¬ 
ings. But the parable deals with possible things; and it 
is only fictitious in the sense of being invented for the 
occasion. The allegory, in the stri<5t sense, differs from 
the parable, because, in the allegory, ideas and qualities 
are personified. The allegory is generally selfdnterpret- 
ing, while the parable needs explanation. 

In the common English translations of the Sacred 
Scriptures, especially of the Old Testament, the word 
“parable” is used in three senses: i, as an enigma, or 
obscure saying; 2 , as any figurative discourse; and 3 , 
as a fictitious, but possible, narrative, invented to convey 
and illustrate a truth. But, when treating of parables, 



io Parables of the New Testament. 

the list generally includes those which are, stridlly speak¬ 
ing, distinctively parables, rather than fables, allegories, 
prophecies, or visions. 

A parable is a sensuous picture of a truth ; i.e., a truth 
brought out so that the senses can grasp it. It is not 
merely a figurative statement of a truth, but a statement 
by correspondences, or the law of natural and spiritual 
counterparts. 


CORRESPONDENCES. 

There is a well-defined analogy between all inward 
things, as spiritual causes, and all outward things, as the 
natural effects of those causes. 

The things of the physical world are but the outward 
images, embodiments and manifestations of the things of 
the inner world of the spirit. And so, in referring to the 
experiences of our inward life, we use the terms which 
apply to our bodily life; but we use them in a figurative 
or symbolic manner. We speak of seeing a truth, of a 
warm affedtion, of a clear thought, or of a sweet feeling. 
And, when such terms are used with exactness, and in 
accordance with the relation existing between our bodily 
life and our mental life, we speak according to corre¬ 
spondences, or natural and spiritual counterparts. And 
this is the law by which the Scriptures were written. The 
literal sense treats of outward things, the things of man’s 
natural life; while, within the literal sense, as a soul with¬ 
in its body, there is a consistent, coherent, continuous 
spiritual sense, always treating of the spiritual side of 
man’s nature. 

And the inward, spiritual meaning of the Scriptures is 
to be discovered by a knowledge of the law, the fadts, and 
the application, of correspondences. 

Thus, the inward, spiritual sense expresses spiritual truths, 
applicable to spiritual life, and the literal language in which 
such truths are concealed, expresses those truths by analogy; 


Introduction. 


ii 


i. e ., by the imagery of symbols, correspondences and repre¬ 
sentatives. 


OUR lord’s use of the parable. 

The faCt that our Lord uses the parable, in both the Old 
and the New Testaments, is known to all. 

The next point must naturally be, why the Lord spoke 
in parables. And, in this matter, we are not left to con¬ 
jecture, for the Lord, Himself, has answered this question, 
in His holy Word. In Matthew, xiii. 13, we read, “There¬ 
fore speak I unto them in parables, because they, seeing, 
see not: and hearing, they hear not, neither do they under¬ 
stand.” 

The truth is like a sword: properly used, it will defend 
and serve us; but abused, it may injure him who handles it 
And, as the greater our knowledge of truth, the greater our 
condemnation, when we negleCt it, so it is not best for a man 
to be introduced into the clear understanding of truth, until 
he is in condition of mind to be able to obey the truth, if he 
is willing. 

Thus, while the logical statement of truth would com¬ 
mend itself to the understanding of thinking men, the para¬ 
ble, on the other hand, would afford the means of carrying 
the truth to those who were ready for it, and of passing over 
those who were not prepared to hear plain truth. 

THE PARABLE ARRESTS ATTENTION. 

It has generally been supposed that a sufficient reason 
for the Lord’s use of parables was to be found in the striking 
charadter of the parable, and its consequent attractiveness. 
The form of the parable is best calculated to arrest the atten¬ 
tion of the hearer, in the beginning, and to hold it, until the 
lesson is fixed in the mind, when recognized. In the para¬ 
ble, truth is brought before the mind with great power. 
Analogy serves an important use in fixing the lesson in the 


I 2 


Parables of the New Testament. 


memory. Spiritual things are so different from the ordinary 
natural things of man’s life in this world, that they are apt 
to glide away from the memory. But, when we see their 
relation to the every-day matters of natural experience, the 
imagery of the parable makes a striking impression upon our 
imagination. Truths are thus presented in duplicate; the 
spirit of the truth is provided with a body of fadls, and the 
body is provided with a spirit of principle. And each side 
of the truth serves to fix in the mind, not only itself, but also 
the other side. The parables attrabl attention, because they 
are pictures, embodying principles. In them the abstract 
principle is embodied in concrete form. And, again, para¬ 
bles attradl the attention of all minds, because they are pi< 5 t- 
ures formed of the familiar things which all men know. We 
live in this world, in an ablive life, amid the works and duties 
of the body; and our thoughts are linked to our senses, by 
means of their experiences. And, especially in the begin 
ning of the opening of our spiritual minds, we can have defin¬ 
ite ideas of spiritual things, only as they exhibit some rela¬ 
tion to our common life. The parables attrabl attention, 
because they treat of the vices which are inherent in all fallen 
natures, and of the virtues which must be learned and prac¬ 
tised by all regenerate men. The truths which are taught in 
the Lord’s parables can never be “out-dated, like a last 
year’s almanacbut they are like the Lord’s tender mer¬ 
cies, “new every morning, every evening new.” 

PERCEPTION OF ANALOGY COMMON TO ALL. 

Again, the perception of analogy is common to all phases 
of human nature. The Orientals, to whom the letter of the 
Scripture was originally given, were very apt in perceiving 
analogies. But the same kind of ability lies in all men : and 
it is operative in all, when not silenced by irrational dogmas, 
or choked by sensuous life. The form of truth used in the 
parable is thus applicable to all natures, and in all dispensa¬ 
tions. And so it was the best and most universal form for 


Introduction. 


13 


the teaching of spiritual truth to natural men, in the world in 
general. For styles and modes of thought, and of expres¬ 
sion, change with the times. But the principle of analogy 
will always remain with men, because it finds a congenial 
soil in all natures. 

The natural senses are open in all men, but the spiritual 
mind is open in few. And so the most universal way of 
reaching men, in all climes, and all times, is to reach, first, 
their senses; and then the truth, by analogy, will pass in, 
beyond the senses, of the man who is open to spiritual life. 

THE PARABLE REACHES THE WILL. 

Again, in the parable the truth passes into the mind, and 
strikes the will, and compels the prepared mind to open 
itself to a truth which the understanding would not have 
received, if given in logical statement. Many a truth, com¬ 
ing to men in clear intellectual light, would have found the 
mind closed to it, through prejudice. But the striking 
form of the parable converts the will, and thus forces the 
door of the intellect, in minds that are ready for the change. 
As an illustration of this condition, take the case of 
Nathan’s rebuke of David, concerning Bathsheba. 

The parable presented the truth to David; and he ex¬ 
pressed his indignation against the evil doer. But he had 
no perception of his own identity with the sinner. But the 
truth having found its way into his will, the application of 
the truth to himself was easily made, by the word of the 
prophet. 


THE PARABLE SERVES FOR JUDGMENT. 

Again, if a man is not willing to repent, the form of the 
parable serves the purpose of judgment, in making the man 
define his spiritual position. For, while the parable is the 
best form for presenting the truth promiscuously, among all 
nations, yet no form of truth can, of itself, carry convi&ion 


14 


Parables of the New Testament. 


of its truthfulness to the hearer’s mind, and turn him from 
his evils, unless he is willing to repent. Repentance de¬ 
pends upon the state of the man’s will towards the truth. 

Thus, the parable serves to give the truth to those who 
will use it, and, at the same time, to hide the truth from 
those who would profane it, being unprepared for its lessons. 
Like the shell of the nut, the literal parable protects the 
kernel from abuse, while preserving it for use. Or it is 
like the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud, which lighted 
and pointed out the way of the journeying Israelites, 
while, at the same time, they concealed the people from 
the pursuing Egyptians. 

THE PARABLE FIXES THE IMAGE. 

Again, not only did the parable present the truth to 
him who was ready for it, and conceal it from those who 
were unprepared for it, but it also fixed the image in the 
mind of the heedless hearer, so that he could hold the image 
until he should become ready for the reception of the truth 
contained within it. The literal parable was, again, like the 
husk of the seed planted in the earth, protedfing the inward 
life, or germ, of the seed, until the conditions were ready 
for the seed to unfold itself, and spring up into new life. 

THE PARABLE FILLED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

Jesus, as He was about to leave His disciples, assured 
them that the Holy Spirit would come, and teach them all 
things, and bring all things to their remembrance, whatso¬ 
ever He had said unto them. And this was accomplished, 
partly by bringing up the images which, by means of 
parables, had been sown like seed in their minds, and then 
unfolding the inward and spiritual meaning. These para¬ 
bles afforded mere images, to unheeding minds; but, as 
the mind, itself, expanded in the light of truth and the 
warmth of love, then these images unfolded, and were 
filled with higher life, in the higher aspe&s of truth. 


Introduction. 


*5 


And, in fa<51, what is genuine spiritual teaching? It is 
not so much the communication of accurate information, as 
it is the opening and training of the hearer’s mind, so that 
he can receive all the truth that dwells within the informa¬ 
tion. The seed is the Word. And its growth depends not 
merely on what is planted, but also on the condition of the 
soil in which it is planted. The degree of the truth seen, 
and the phase of the truth received, will always depend 
on the condition of the mind into which it is received. 
This is abundantly shown in the parable of “ The Sower,” 
whose seeds fell into different kinds of ground. 

The same fa<5t, the same doctrine, and the same para¬ 
ble, which communicate nothing but natural ideas to the 
natural-minded man, open the spiritual truth to the spirit¬ 
ual man, and celestial truth to the celestial man. See, for 
instance, how even the disciples of the Lord, in their sensu¬ 
ous states of mind, were perplexed over His parables. But, 

“ He cometh with clouds,” to those who live in the obscur¬ 
ity of the clouds, rather than in the clear light of the sun. 

EACH RECEIVES ACCORDING TO HIS CAPACITY. 

The light reveals, to each man, what the man is men¬ 
tally in position to see ; as, in the bright light of the physi¬ 
cal sunshine, a witness, in one location, sees the beauty of 
the scene, while another, in a different position, sees no¬ 
thing but the glare of the sun, which blinds him to the view. 

It is.not enough, then, that we hear what our Lord speaks ; 
but we must also be in condition to hear in the right way. 

And so Jesus said, “Take heed how ye hear; for who¬ 
soever hath, to him shall be given ; and whosoever hath 
not, from him shall be taken, even that which he seemeth 
to have.” “He that is of God, heareth God’s words.” 
And Jesus said, “If any man will do His will, he shall 
know of the doctrine. ” 

The two-fold chara<5ler of the parables of our Lord, is ' 
like that of the Lord, Himself. He was, in His Humanity, 


16 Parables of the New Testament . 

presented either as a mere man, or as God, according to the 
openness of the minds who received Him. The dodtrine 
of the Divine character of Jesus Christ is “the stone which 
the builders reje&ed” from man-made creeds, but which 
“is become the head of the corner,” in the New-Jerusalem. 
And it must also be, not only with the parables, but also 
with all truth, and most of all with the greatest truth, as to 
the character of Jesus Christ, that He can best make it 
known to His own disciples, and in the measure of their 
discipleship. As we approach the Lord, in character, we 
gain clearer views of His character. And so it is with 
all truths; as we love them, and use them, in forming our 
character, we understand them more and more fully. 

THE PARABLES NEEDED IN THE LORD’S WORK. 

A more external reason why Jesus spoke in parables, is 
to be found in the fa6t that it was necessary for Him to do 
certain works on the earth, and that, had He at once plainly 
indicated the whole spirit of His work, He would have 
brought down upon Himself the enmity and violence of the 
Jews, before the completion gf His work, and in a way to 
interfere with His mission. Thus, in the providence of the 
Lord, all the purposes of the Divine Love co-operate. 

Jesus taught in parables, and thus presented the truth 
in such form that every hearer could take, from His teach ¬ 
ings, such phase of the truth as he was in condition to re¬ 
ceive. Thus good men could be aided in the work of regen¬ 
eration ; men who were ready could be led to repentance 
and reformation ; men who were not now prepared to see 
the spiritual side of truth could have the image fixed in 
the memory, for future use ; men who would abuse the 
truth, if shown to them clearly, were protedled from the 
grievous sin of profaning known truth ; and men who were 
ready for the judgment could be shown in the light. And 
so Jesus often said, “ He that hath ears to hear, let him 
hear.” He that had open ears, could hear ; but the truth 


Introduction. 


17 


could pass by, without injuring, him whose spiritual ears 
were closed. 


THE PRINCIPLE OF ANALOGY. 

To understand the parables, we must comprehend the 
principle of analogy. And this requires some openness of 
thought, because it requires a consideration of both sides of 
our life, the spiritual and the natural. For the clear under¬ 
standing of the parable, it is necessary to be able to think 
rationally; to perceive the logical connection between ends, 
causes and effeCts. And it will also help us, in understand¬ 
ing the parables of the Scriptures, if we understand the prin¬ 
ciples and fa6fs of nature, with which they deal. For the 
correspondence of the spiritual with the literal sense, is not 
merely with the form of the statement, but also with the 
sense, the idea. And so, to have a well-defined picture 
formed in our minds by a parable, we must have an ade¬ 
quate knowledge of the things which are employed as the 
symbols of truth. 

KNOWLEDGE OF DOCTRINE NEEDED. 

And, as the parable is a linking of natural and spiritual 
phases of truth, we shall have clearer knowledge of the spirit¬ 
ual truth which is inculcated in the parable, as we acquire a 
good knowledge of the do< 5 trines of the church, in which 
spiritual truth is contained. It is true, in this matter, as in 
other spiritual things, that more is given to him who already 
has much; because what he already has, is the means of 
acquiring more. 


EXPERIENCE TEACHES. 

The best way to comprehend what the Lord meant, in 
His teachings, is to feel as the Lord felt, towards those whom 
He taught. He came, not to destroy, but to save; to bind 


18 Parables of the New Testament. 

up the broken-hearted. And as we appreciate, and enter 
into, His feelings and thoughts, we can also appreciate His 
conduCl and His teaching. For these were all means to the 
same end, the salvation of men. If we, from a selfish stand¬ 
point, and for condemnation, look upon human nature, we 
shall not be able to grasp the teachings of Infinite Love. 

THE PARABLES INTER-RELATED. 

The parables of our Lord stand by themselves, in a class 
of their own. They are not merely figurative teachings ; they 
they are Divine parables, teaching by correspondences. 

The parables are not merely detached ideas, but they are 
inter-related. They all belong to one family. See, espe¬ 
cially, the several parables given in chapter xiii. of Matthew, 
beginning with the parable of “ The Sower. ” These parables 
are all connected, illustrating the progress of regeneration. 
We consider the parables of our Lord, as one who walks in 
a pi&ure-gallery, examining the works of art. We see them 
individually, and also collectively. Each teaches its own 
lesson; and yet, like paintings in a series, each serves to ex¬ 
plain the rest, and all help towards the understanding of 
each. But, as we view the parables of our Lord, let us 
remember that we are walking in a piCture-gallery of heaven ; 
that if we will, a heavenly guide, the Holy Spirit, will attend 
us, to explain the pictures. But we must carry with us a 
spiritual and heavenly appreciation, or the instruction of our 
guide will be of little practical use to us. 

DIFFERENCES IN DIFFERENT GOSPELS. 

There are characteristic differences between the parables 
in the different gospels, as there are between the gospels 
themselves. The four gospels are statements of truth from 
different standpoints; from the four quarters of the compass, 
in the world of spirit; from the approaches to the holy city, 
on its four sides. But, though thus differing in particulars, 


Introduction. 


9 


and in various characteristics, yet the gospels, and their par¬ 
ables, all teach the same great truths of the same infinite 
Divine Love. 


ENACTED PARABLES. 

And the Divine Love, in reaching men, employed not 
only the spoken parable, but also the enaCted parable. See, 
for instance, Jeremiah, at the command of the Lord, taking 
an earthen bottle, and taking with him, to the valley of the 
son of Hinnom, the elders of the people, and there breaking 
the bottle, and prophesying (Jer. xix. i-ii.) See Jeremiah 
making bonds and yokes, and sending them to various 
Kings, with the word of the Lord (Jer. xxvii. 2.) See 
Hananiah, breaking the yoke from Jeremiah’s neck, and 
prophesying (Jer. xxviii. 10). See Jeremiah, buying a field 
and going through the legal forms, and then prophesying 
(Jer. xxxii. 6-15). 

See, also, Ezekiel and Zechariah enacting parables. See, 
also, enaCled parables in the Apocalypse; for the visions, or 
seeings, of the prophets, were enaCted parables. And so, 
the whole journey of the Israelites was a grand enaCled 
parable, illustrating the journey of regeneration. 

In a more universal sense, our Lord teaches us by para¬ 
bles, in all our daily experience amid the things of earth. 
For what is our life on earth, but a parable of spiritual life. 
Everything that we see and hear, speaks to us spiritual les¬ 
sons, which we may, if we will, hear and heed. 

ANCIENT LANGUAGE PARABOLIC. 

The further we go back, in history, towards the condition 
of mankind represented in the allegory of the Garden of 
Eden, the more we find the prevalence of the parable, as a 
method of expressing truth. When a fuller spiritual insight 
lifted men above the grosser and more sensuous phases of 
life, the whole of outward nature was a speaking parable of 
the inner world of the mind. 


20 Parables of the New Testament. 

Such men “looked through nature, up to nature’s God.” 
Nature was a mirror, in which they saw their own image. 
And if we find even the works of the Lord teeming with 
analogies, is it wonderful that we find His Word, also, writ¬ 
ten in the language of analogy? 

All the things of the more literal dispensations in the 
church, have been but figures and images of the spiritual 
realities which come to us in Christianity. 

“The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came 
by Jesus Christ.” 

ILLUSTRATION AND REBUKE. 

Among the parables of the Lord, it is noticeable that 
some seem to have been given to illustrate great truths, while 
others seem to have been pointed rebukes of prevalent sins. 
But closer scrutiny reveals the fa6l that both these elements 
are a6tually present in each parable. The enforcing of doc¬ 
trine, and the precept for the life, go hand in hand, co-oper¬ 
ating, like the light and the heat in the rays of the sun. 
For Christianity is not a creed, but a life. The creed is for 
the sake of the life. “All religion relates to life, and a relig¬ 
ious life is to do good.” 

Do6f rine is the theory of life, and conduct is the embodi¬ 
ment of the theory, in life. 

THE INTERPRETATION OF PARABLES. 

And, now, as to the interpretation of the parables of our 
Lord, what is the law? May each reader have his own way 
of reading them? Is there no law of interpretation, which 
can be known and used? In all things of nature, and of 
man, we find law. Divine Love works by methods; and 
these methods are laws. And, if all things of both worlds 
in which men live, the spiritual and the natural world, are 
governed by law, by order, then all the influences which 
reach men, must operate according to some order, which is 


IntroduElion. 


21 


law. And, if the parables which were spoken and written 
were framed in accordance with some law, then they can be 
read by law. 

If there is a law, it can be revealed, and men can employ 
it. If we know the principle of the law, and the fa6ts of the 
case, we shall be able to apply the law to the case. If, in read¬ 
ing the parables of our Lord, we are left to the notions of each 
individual reader, then there is no basis of known truth to 
be derived from them. But if there is a known law, then 
we have a sure foundation on which to build the teachings. 
Every science has its laws and its terms, and every art has 
its modes. In music, and, in fa£t, in all writing, there are 
signs for sounds. And when we learn these, they tell the 
same story to us all, each according to his knowledge and 
his skill. We are not left to individual notions and caprices. 

THE LAW OF CORRESPONDENCES. 

And, as we have already shown, the parables of the 
Scriptures are written according to the law of correspond¬ 
ences, or natural and spiritual counterparts. This is the great 
law which underlies all connexion between the natural and 
spiritual worlds, including the relation between the things of 
man’s body and the things of his spirit. The letter of the 
parable deals with the things of man’s natural life, but the 
spiritual principle which the parable illustrates is a law of 
man’s spiritual life. And because such a relation exists be¬ 
tween man’s body and his spirit, therefore the truth is put in 
the form of a parable, that it may be based upon the out¬ 
ward things that are common to our natural life, and, by 
analogy, may open its inward meaning to our spiritual mind. 

Thus, in the law of correspondences, or natural and spir¬ 
itual counterparts, we have a fixed principle of interpretation, 
open to all open minds, in all ages, in all countries, and in 
all conditions of progress. And this is a fixed principle, or 
law, of interpretation, not only to the parables, but also to all 
other portions of the Sacred Scriptures; and, in fa< 51 , to all 


22 Parables of the New Testament 

the experiences and the phenomena of our human life. 
There is one God, one truth, and one law of interpretation. 
•‘‘And he that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” 

ARE THE PARABLES TRUE IN DETAILS? 

And the fa< 5 t that there is a fixed law of interpreting the 
parables of our Lord enables us to answer the questions, 
How much of a parable may we receive, as teaching truth ? 
Are we to gather a general principle, or to carry out the in¬ 
terpretation into the details of the parables? Many theo¬ 
logical arguments have been held over these points. But, 
if there be a Divine law, according to which the parables 
are framed, that law must be full and thorough, through¬ 
out the parable. All the details are parts of the pidlure ; 
and every general thing is made up of its particulars. And, 
in fadt, see how the Lord, Himself, in interpreting His 
own parables, carried out the thought in particulars. See 
His explanation of the parable of “ The Sower,” who went 
forth to sow seed. Jesus gives the interpretation of the 
particulars. And we must, in addition to this fa< 5 t, remem¬ 
ber that Jesus gave only an external interpretation, suited 
to His audience, and did not, even with His disciples, enter 
into the more elevated spiritual teachings of the parables. 

Thus, the question, whether to carry the interpretation 
into the details of the parables, was settled by the method 
employed by Jesus, Himself. And the reason of this 
method is clear, from the principles of correspondences. 

We may carry the interpretation into the details of the 
parable, as long as we follow the principles and the fa<5ts 
of correspondences. 

UNWARRANTED INFERENCES. 

The only danger lies in departing from correspondences, 
and in drawing mere inferences, which are unwarranted, 
either by the correspondences of the parable, or by the gen- 


IntroduElion. 


23 


eral tenor of the teachings of the gospels. For instance, in 
the parable of “The Ten Virgins,” if, from the fa< 5 l that 
five were wise and five were foolish, we should infer that 
just half the human race were to be saved, and half to be 
lost, we should make a foolish inference, utterly unwarranted 
by anything in the parable, or by anything else in the teach¬ 
ings of our Lord. And such an inference would not be an 
application of the law of correspondences, for a correspond¬ 
ence is between an external thing and its internal, that is, 
between some natural thing and its spiritual counterpart; as 
for instance, between the natural sight of the eye of the body, 
and the spiritual sight of the eye of the mind, the intellect. 
But the unwarranted inference before stated, would be a 
mere comparison of one external thing with another exter¬ 
nal thing, an inference following no law of man’s life. 
While, therefore, we may carry out all the actual corre¬ 
spondences of the Scriptures, we must beware of drawing 
gratuitous and unwarranted inferences. 

CORRESPONDENCE A DIVINE PRINCIPLE. 

The great trouble, outside of the New-Church, has been 
that men have not known the principle of correspondence, 
as a Divine principle. They have supposed a parable to be 
an image in the same sense as a marble statue is an image 
of a man, true in outward form, but without color; or as a 
painted portrait is an image, true in color, and in representa¬ 
tion of the form ; but both the statue and the painting being 
like the original only superficially, and not at all in the in¬ 
ward parts, or contents. But this is not the case with the 
parable. The parable is not an image, as the statue, or the 
painting, is an image of the man, but as the outward em¬ 
bodiment of a passion is an image of the passion which it 
expresses; as the smile and the open hand are images of the 
love which controls them ; and as the frown and the clenched 
fist are images of the anger from which they spring. 

From the parable, therefore, we are to draw not natural 


24 Parables of the New Testament . 

inferences about external things, but spiritual causes of nat¬ 
ural effe< 5 ls. 

THE PARABLE GRASPED FROM ITS CENTRAL TRUTH. 

In the interpretation of the parables, we shall always best 
reach the spiritual lesson, by grasping, first, the main and 
central truth, to teach which the parable was given. And 
then all the collateral circumstances will take their places, as 
parts of the whole pi< 5 ture. He who considers a parable, 
from the knowledge of its central truth, is like a man who 
stands in the centre of a great park, from which centre radi¬ 
ate many paths, ending in the circumference of the circle. 

The centre of the circle represents the central principle 
of the parable, and the radii represent the circumstances of 
the parable, all leading up to the central principle, like paths 
from the outside to the centre of the park. As the man 
who stands in the centre of the park, sees the plan of the 
whole park, and the connection between its parts, so the man 
who mentally stands at the centre of a parable, in the knowl¬ 
edge of its central truth, sees the general plan of the teaching 
of the parable, and the relation and connexion of its differ¬ 
ent parts. 

And yet, like the man who walks about the circumfer¬ 
ence of the park, and does not comprehend either its plan 
or its connexions, the mind that does not grasp the central 
principle of the parable, but halts in some of its circumstances, 
is not in mental position to comprehend its teachings. 

What the central truth of the parable is, in any case, we 
may often learn from the context; i. e ., from the introduc¬ 
tory circumstances, and from the application. By seeing 
what the Lord was discussing, and what He wished to apply, 
we can see the force of the intended teaching. And we can 
thus see that, in truth, as in geometry, the circumference is 
always drawn from the centre, and not the centre from the 
circumference. The central truth will always interpret and 
apply the parable. 


Introduction. 


25 


THE PARABLES ILLUSTRATIVE. 

For the parables are not argumentative, but illustrative; 
they were not given to teach new doctrine, but to illustrate 
and confirm doctrine already given. And only as we see 
its central truth can we grasp the application of the parable. 
All the circumstances of the context also unite in urging the 
central truth which the parable illustrates. 

The truth that is in the parable will always be clear to 
those who are in the light of truth. The central principle, 
or truth, may not always be easy to find; but it will always 
be easy to see, when found; as, in all the sciences, an expert 
may be needed to find the law, or to make the invention, 
but all can appreciate the result when found. 

The parables of the Scriptures are the Lord’s work; and 
they must be interpreted by the Lord’s revealed laws, and 
for His purposes. 

They were given, to illustrate spiritual truth, and not to 
lead men to fanciful notions, in their application to prophecy, 
or to national or ecclesiastical history. In the history of the 
churches, the parables have been pressed into the service of 
all sects and theorists, to prove their respective creeds. And 
the figurative and undogmatic form of the parables, renders 
them especially liable to such abuse. Outside of the New- 
Church, the general idea seems to be that the spiritual teach¬ 
ing of the parable is “a sense to which one mounts up, from 
the steps of that which is below.” But such is merely a 
figurative natural sense, not a distinctively spiritual sense. 

THE SPIRITUAL SENSE APPARENTLY DISCONNECTED FROM 
THE LITERAL. 

It has been objected that, in the New-Church, the spirit¬ 
ual interpretation is entirely disconnected from the letter of 
the parable. But this is the very point which shows that the 
New-Church has the correct method of interpreting the para¬ 
bles. For the relation between the letter and the spirit of 
the parable is the same as the relation between man’s body 


26 


Parables of the New Testament. 


and his spirit. These seem to be entirely disconnected; and 
yet they are in the closest possible connection. You cannot 
mount up to an understanding of the human spirit, from any 
study of the human body, as such. In faCt, some of the 
most pronounced infidels are among the leading students 
of natural science. The more they study physical life, the 
less they believe in the existence of a spiritual life. 

And why? Precisely because, to the outward thought, 
the spirit and the body are entirely disconnected. 

Their connection is not by continuity, but by correspond¬ 
ence. The man who would clearly understand spiritual life 
must find the proof of that life, not by the external and sens¬ 
uous study of the physical body, but by the opening of his 
own spiritual mind. And when the spiritual mind is opened, 
the very faCts of nature, which before were stumbling-blocks 
to the man’s perception of spiritual things, become, now, to 
his open eyes, confirmations, illustrations and applications' 
of spiritual life. It is not, then, against the New-Church 
method of interpreting the parables, to say that the spiritual 
meaning thus developed is entirely disconnected from the 
literal sense. It is not disconnected, except as the spirit and 
the body of a man are disconnected. It is not disconnected, 
to him who is able to see the existing connection. 

The spiritual sense of the Scripture, like the spirit of 
man, yields the secret of its existence to him who has eyes 
to see. Spiritual principles being known, the parable yields 
its secret and its application, seen in the light of truth. For 
truth is seen from the centre to the circumference. But with¬ 
out clear spiritual truth, men have no fixed law of interpret¬ 
ation ; and then they may go to the parables, “not to draw 
out, from the Scripture, its own meaning, but to thrust into 
the Scripture” their desired dodlrine. Thus, men abuse the 
Scripture, to uphold their own dogmas. 

But to him who, in a child-like spirit, goes to the letter 
of the Scripture, ready to receive whatever the Lord desires 
to teach him, the whole Scripture becomes, spiritually, “a 
well of water, springing up into everlasting life.” 


The Parables of the New Testament. 


i. 

Ctje i^ousc on tlje fiocft, and t(jc Uousc on tfjc 
«§>and. 

(MATTHEW VII. 24-27.) 

THE INSTABILITY OF UNPRACTISED TRUTH. 


RELIGION RELATES TO LIFE. 

This is one of the plainest of the Lord’s parables. 
Every one can see the main features of the lesson. Only 
the practised truth withstands temptation. 

“ These sayings, ” which the Lord says are His, are the 
revelations of His Truth, the great life-principles which He 
lays down for the government of our affections, thoughts, 
and doings. They are His, because He is the Divine 
Truth, personified. And yet, as He elsewhere says, “ The 
Word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who 
sent Me;” i. e ., Divine Truth is not self-existent, but is 
from the Divine Good, which is the inmost of all things. 
Good is the Father, and Truth is the Son: yet they are 
one, as Good makes one with the Truth, which is its form, 
and by which it manifests itself; and as the heat of fire 
makes one with its light, being inseparably united. 

SPIRITUAL HEARING. 

In the inward sense, to hear is to hear in the inward man, 
the spirit; and that is to know and understand. To hear 




28 


Parables of the New Testament. 


the Lord’s sayings, is to know and understand His truth, 
and to know it to be His truth, and to receive it as His. 
Natural men often adopt a principle, merely as a scientific 
truth, without any reference to the Lord, as the Source of 
that truth. For instance : the worldly-wise man says,“ Hon¬ 
esty is the best policyand he adopts an honest policy, 
because he sees that, on the whole, it gains more than a 
wavering and dishonest policy. The man is not governed 
by religious principles, but by worldly policy ; he merely uses 
the prudence of the serpent in choosing his policy. 

But the man who seeks to know what the Lord teaches 
and wills, and who determines to do that which is com¬ 
manded, without waiting to consider worldly policy, is gov¬ 
erned by religious principles. 

The parable comes to us in warning ; and its force lies in 
its assertion that heaven is not formed in man by knowing 
and understanding Divine Truth, but by knowing, under¬ 
standing and doing Divine Truth. For, the difference 
between the man building on the rock, and the man building 
on the sand, is that one does the Lord’s sayings, and the 
other does them not. Both hear His sayings: both know 
and understand Divine Truths; but one applies them to his 
life, and is secure against evil, while the other keeps them as 
intellectual things, but not applied to his daily life; and, as 
a consequence, the storms of temptation beat upon the latter 
man, and he falls in spiritual death. The whole reason why 
men should hear the Lord’s sayings, is that they may do 
them : the doing is the end, and the hearing is the means to 
carry out the end. 


A WISE MAN. 

He who does the sayings, or teachings, of the Lord, is 
likened to a wise man. 

The world often calls a man wise who knows much ; but 
the Lord calls a man wise, when he makes a good use of his 
knowledge, by living according to it. And folly consists not 


The House on the Rock. 


29 


in a lack of knowledge, but in making no good use of what 
we know; not applying our knowledge to a good life. 

The wise man gave proof of his wisdom, by building his 
house upon a rock. In the spiritual sense, the parable refers 
to spiritual things ; to the spiritual house which our spirit is 
building, in our minds. 

THE SPIRITUAL HOUSE. 

Each man’s own mind is his spiritual house, that in which 
he shall abide. 

The mind consists of the will, with its affeCtions, and the 
understanding, or intellect, with its thoughts. A man’s 
spiritual life is in his mind, that is, in his will and understand¬ 
ing. And the kind, or quality, of his life depends upon the 
state of his mind. 

We are all building up our minds, wfith certain principles ; 
we are all building up the inward houses in which we are to 
live forever. Day by day, moment by moment, we are add¬ 
ing piece by piece to the structure, after our chosen plan. 
If we build our house with heavenly materials, good affec¬ 
tions and true thoughts, our Lord will enter into it, and 
abide with us. And we so build, when we keep His sayings; 
for He says, “ If a man love Me, he will keep My words, and 
My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and 
make our abode with him.” 

With the good man, the Lord, through His ministering 
angels, really builds the inward house, while the man does 
his part, by doing the Lord’s teachings. And with the evil 
man, the evil spirits operate, and use him as their tool. 

But the character of the house which we are building 
within, depends not entirely upon the superstructure; its 
stability depends principally upon the kind of foundation we 
give it. Without a secure foundation no house is safe. The 
most magnificent palace at once loses its value, when its 
foundation is seen to be sinking. 

The wise man built his house upon a rock. 


30 


Parables of the New Testament. 


THE ROCK. 

In the letter of the Scriptures, “a rock” is the symbol of 
truth. And, as the Lord, in His Divine Humanity, is the 
Truth, He is called the Rock. “Jehovah is my Rock, and 
my Fortress. . . . Who is a Rock, save our God?” 

The Rock, then, upon which the wise man builds his 
mental house, is the Lord. In a more particular sense the 
Rock is the Lord’s Divine Truth. We receive the truth in 
faith. To build our house upon a rock, is to build our 
minds upon the Lord’s truth, held in genuine faith. The 
two parts of man’s mind are like the two parts of a house; 
the will is the foundation, and the understanding is the 
superstructure. The house is founded upon a rock, when 
the will firmly holds the truth of our faith; when we know 
and understand the truth, and set our hearts firmly upon the 
truth, upon the Lord, as the Truth, and upon the good life 
lived according to the truth. 

But when the understanding, only, looks to the truth, 
and we do not fix our heart upon it, the truth is in one 
part of our mind, only, the superstructure, and is not in 
the foundation. Then our house may appear to be well 
built, but it is not secure; for it is not founded upon a rock, 
but upon the sand. 


THE SAND. ' 

And “sand” is the symbol of truths lying in the memory 
and intellect, without being loved in the will. The rock 
and the sand are made of the same material; they are both 
stone. But the rock is firm and living, and held together 
according to natural laws; while the sand is dead rock, the 
broken and scattered bones of the great rocks of past ages 
no longer held firmly together. The particles composing 
the living rock are like the living truths in our minds, 
conjoined, cemented, firmly held together, by the binding 
principle of living love. But the particles of sand, lying 


The House on the Rock. 


3 i 


loosely together, and merely adjoined, not conjoined, only 
placed side by side, but not cemented together by any liv¬ 
ing principle, and easily scattered apart, are like the truths 
laid up in our memories and intelledls, which give no firm 
base, or foundation, upon which to build up any spiritual 
life. 

The fa6t that there is no firm foundation except upon the 
rock of living faith in the truth, based in the will, appears 
even more clearly from the parallel passage in Luke, in 
which it is said, “He that heareth, and doeth not, is like 
a man, who, without a foundation, built a house,” etc. 

THE CHURCH ON THE ROCK. 

When Peter said, “Thou art the Christ,” Jesus said to 
him, “Thou art Peter ; and upon this rock will I build My 
Church.” The word, Peter, or Petra, means a rock. And 
the rock upon which our Lord builds His Church, is a 
living faith in the truth, based in the will. And when we 
build our spiritual house upon a rock, that house is a 
Church, for our Lord abides in it, and in it we worship 
Him. The Church is thus planted in man, in the truths 
of faith, based on love. 

If we are not principled in love to our Lord, we are led 
by self-love. And, as “a man can receive nothing, unless 
it be given him from heaven,” there is no power, or 
security, or stability, or happiness, in relying on self. 

And when a man receives truths superficially, he does 
not allow them to show him his own evils. And, hence, he 
does not put away his evils, and does not practise the truth. 

But the parable shows us why, and how, the sand is 
an insecure foundation for our house. 

THE RAINS, ETC. 

The danger comes from the rain, the floods and the 
winds. And we notice that these come upon both houses ; 


32 


Parables of the New Testament. 


but one stands, while the other falls. The house founded 
upon a rock does not escape meeting the rain, floods and 
storms, but it escapes being destroyed by them. 

The rains, floods and winds, represent the temptations 
which beset and assault us, in our life-experience. We 
must all meet them; but while the good stand secure 
under them, the evil fall. 

Our faith is tried in temptations. If it be true, and 
founded on the Lord, loved in the heart, it will stand the 
test, and will come out like gold from the fire, purer and 
better ; but if it be false, merely intellectual faith, not based 
in the ruling-love, it will be undermined and swept away. 

TEMPTATIONS. 

By means of our natural tendencies towards evils, evil 
spirits are able to draw near to us, and to excite our pro¬ 
pensities. Yet, by means of the truths taught us from the 
Lord’s Word, the angels draw near to us, to counteract evil 
influences, and to lead us to heaven. If our faith is merely 
in our intellect, the angels will have access to our intellect, 
only, and they can influence us by thoughts, only ; and if 
our hearts are given up to evils, the evil spirits, having 
access to our hearts, will lead us by our afleCtions. 

And we know that our afleCtions will carry us onward, 
even against our thoughts to the contrary ; because the 
afleCtions gradually control the intellect. But, if the angels 
can lead us by our afleCtions, as they can when we love the 
things of faith, then the evil propensities of our natural 
minds will not gain power over us, in temptation. 

Temptation comes to all; but, to the good, it does 
the work of purifying; while, to the evil, it brings con¬ 
firmation in evil. 

The severe trials of temptation are well pictured by 
the combined attack of the rain, the floods and winds, 
beating upon a house. 

‘ ‘ Rain, ’ ’ as water, is the symbol of natural truth. But, 


The House on the Rock. 


33 


when rain is violent and destructive, it denotes truth per¬ 
verted, and changed into falsity. 

The violent rain beating upon the house represents 
falsity attacking the mind, false suggestions, cunning falsi¬ 
ties, coming upon the mind, from evil spirits, exciting the 
hereditary natural tendencies to evil. 

THE FLOODS. 

In temptations, these false suggestions flow into the 
mind, in gradually increasing volume. As in nature, long 
continued and heavy rains produce a flood, so, in the mind, 
during temptation, the wicked rain of false suggestions 
gradually produces a flood, an accumulation of falsities, 
swelling up, like an angry flood, and rushing on, in a body, 
to overwhelm every spiritually living thing in their path. 

THE WINDS. 

And the winds come, also. These destructive storms 
of wind, which accompany the violent rains and rising 
floods, represent the peculiar attitude of falsities in which 
they engage the thoughts. They come with a more cun¬ 
ning and subtle power than the rain and the flood; like 
the wind, they penetrate through every nook and corner, 
and use every weak spot to exert their influence. They 
come quietly, at first, but increase into tornadoes, and 
threaten everything before them. 

A DISTINCTION. 

There is a suggestive distinction which does not ap- 
„ pear in the common English translation ; the words trans¬ 
lated beat (“the winds, flood and rain beat upon that 
house,”) are not the same, in the two cases. In speaking 
of the house founded on a rock, the word used would be 
better translated fell; while, concerning the house on the 
sand, the word means to dash against , or beat upon. While, 


34 


Parables of the New Testament. 


in temptations, the falsities dash against, or beat violently 
upon, the evil mind, with its false faith, destroying all 
good and truth in such a mind, yet the same falsities only 
fall upon the good, coming with much less violence, and 
carrying away with them the evil propensities which in¬ 
vited them, and leaving the mind in the sweet peace that 
follows the resisted storm. 

THE SOURCE OF SPIRITUAL STORMS. 

The Lord has built His Church, in man, upon the rock 
of a living, loving faith, “and the gates of hell shall not 
prevail against it.” And this is a suggestion, to us, of 
the source of these violent temptations; they are furious 
storms, rushing out from the open “ gates of hell,” which are 
open to us, so far as we have, in us, evils and evil inclinations 
which tend towards the hells, and which seek to enter there, 
as a congenial home. By means of these temptations, the 
evil spirits try to seduce and destroy our spiritual houses. 

But, in turning these storms of temptations to service, 
with the good, our Lord “ makes the wrath of man to praise 
Him,” and secures good to the good, by the permission 
of evil to the evil. The good are secure, in temptations, 
because their hearts are regenerating, and thus their inward 
loves are opposed to the evil hereditary inclinations of 
their natural minds, through which temptations come. 

MENTAL HOUSES BUILT IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 

As the spirit of man lives always in the spiritual world, 
where is this inward house-building going on ? Certainly in 
the spiritual world. The parable says that the man who lives 
by the Lord’s teachings, and who is a wise man, is like one 
who builds his house on a firm rock. But, spiritually, the 
wise man is not only like such a man, but he is such a man : 
he spiritually builds his spiritual house on a spiritual rock ; 
and the fool builds his spiritual house on spiritual sand. 


The House on the Rock. 


35 


The text is literally true of spiritual things. The good 
man’s inward house is actually built in heaven; for heaven 
is not merely a place, but an inward state. And natural 
death is the means of bringing him into full and conscious 
possession of his house. 

But the evil fall, in temptation, because their inward minds 
are closed against heaven, whence, only, help can come; and 
because the evil, being in real sympathy with the hells, are 
willing that the hells should lead them. They are really 
building their houses in the hells, from choice. 

But the house founded on the rock endured the storm, 
and did not fall ; the man whose faith was founded in his 
will endured, because he sought, and received, life and help 
from the Lord, who, alone, is able successfully to combat 
against evil spirits. 


THE FALL. 

But the house built on the sand yielded to the storm, and 
fell; and “great was the fall of it;” i. <?., the mind which 
knows and understands truth, and yet inwardly cherishes evil, 
falls, in temptation, and, by its voluntary abuse of its knowl¬ 
edge and understanding, brings upon itself “the greater 
condemnation.” Its fall is great, entire, complete. A fall 
into slight falsities, from which one can again become freed, 
is a slight fall; but a fall under the great and overwhelming 
torrents of falsities from evil, is truly a great fall, a complete 
spiritual undermining, a watery grave to the perishing spirit¬ 
ual man. 


CHARACTER. 

Only the pradised truth builds up the chara&er. The 
great business of our life is to build a house for our Lord to 
dwell in, in our hearts and lives. If we do not build for our 
Lord, we shall build a mere “ den for wild beasts, and a cage 
of every unclean and hateful bird.” Every good affe&ion is 


36 


Parables of the New Testament. 


a sound piece of timber, for an inward house; and every 
true thought is a strong and durable stone. On the other 
side, every evil affebtion is a decayed timber, and every false 
thought is a mouldering brick. 

Our Lord gives us, in the holy Word, all the plans, spe¬ 
cifications and estimates that are necessary to do our build¬ 
ing well. And it should be our great delight to do this work 
of building. But foolish men try to build with their own 
plans, while good and wise men build with the Lord’s plans. 
The wise man selects his materials with great care, and 
builds with care. But the careless man takes any materials 
that seem to come to hand. What we need are not mere 
sentiments, but fixed principles. There is no way of fixing 
a principle in the manhood, except by doing it. In the 
doing, the love of the good, and the thought of the truth, are 
fixed in our conduct. 


Old and New Cloth. 


37 


II. 

<!MD and j|5cto Clotf), IDmc anU 25ottleg. 

(luke v. 36-39.) 

NEW DOCTRINES NEEDED FOR NEW TRUTHS. 


SUMMARY. 

Truth must be expressed in dodtrine. And every truth 
requires an appropriate dodtrine to contain it. New truths 
can not be fully contained and exhibited in and by old doc¬ 
trine. Therefore, for new truth we must have new dodtrine. 

And, as dodlrine teaches men how to live, every new 
quality of life is accompanied by a new dodtrine. For a new 
kind of life requires new thought, new feelings and new 
habits. 

The man who remains in the old way of thinking and of 
feeling, does not see why there should be a new way of liv¬ 
ing. And hence he does not see the need of new habits. 
But a new life includes a new internal and a new external. 

These principles are involved in the circumstances of the 
parable. The scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “Why do 
the disciples of John fast, often, and make prayers ; and like¬ 
wise the disciples of the Pharisees; but Thine eat and drink ?” 

NEW AND OLD WAYS. 

And the parable gives the reason why the disciples of 
Jesus should have different habits from those of the disciples 
of the Pharisees. The Pharisees lived in the spirit of the old 
Jewish dispensation. Their feelings, their thoughts and their 



38 Parables of the New Testament . 

habits, were of the character of the dispensation in which they 
lived. And John the Baptist came to warn, rather than to 
teach new truth; and so his disciples were not prepared to 
assume new forms of worship. 

But Jesus came to introduce a new dispensation of life; 
to teach new truth; to bring- a judgment upon the old dis¬ 
pensation ; and to make a radical change in men’s ways of 
feeling, thinking and aCting. And, naturally, His disciples 
would change their ways of aCting, as a part of their change 
of character. 


DISPENSATIONS DIFFER. 

Each dispensation of life, among men, has been a re-ad¬ 
justment of human life, accommodated to the spiritual needs 
of men. As men declined to lower states of character, the 
infinite love of the Lord followed them down, and re-adjusted 
their conditions, to guard them, as far as possible, from the 
bad results of their own evils; and, at the same time, to keep 
them open to heavenly blessings, as far as their states of 
character would permit. 

Each dispensation of the Church has thus been an ad¬ 
justment of all things about men to the character of their 
ruling-love. Each dispensation has had its own phase of 
life, its own quality of character. Men in different dispens¬ 
ations, have been different kinds of men; different in their 
inward quality of character, and different in the outward ways 
and habits, which embody and express the character. 

RETROGRADING. 

In each dispensation, as men retrograded, from higher to 
lower conditions of spiritual life, a new dispensation was ren¬ 
dered necessary, because men had lost some of the character¬ 
istic qualities of the previous dispensations. Because men be¬ 
came different in their central principles, they became differ¬ 
ent in their outward ways of life. And, having grown to be 


Old and New Cloth. 


39 


different, different phases of spiritual influences were 
adapted to their spiritual needs. 

When men sank below the appreciation of the higher 
forms of the Divine Love, that infinitely tender Love came 
to them in lower, or more external forms, such as they 
could then comprehend. 

THE COMING OF THE LORD. 

And, when men had sunk to the lowest possible con¬ 
dition in which human life could be preserved, the Divine 
Love came to them, in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, to 
save them from impending destruction, and to open their 
minds to the appreciation of heavenly life. 

THE ASCENT. 

Then, under the guidance of the Divine Love, began 
the ascent of the human race, towards the higher condi¬ 
tions it had formerly lost. As men began to outgrow the 
characteristic quality of the existing dispensation, and the 
conditions were ready for a new step upward, to a higher 
phase of life, a new dispensation was introduced. 

SEPARATING THE OLD AND THE NEW. 

And, at every such change, the men who were still im¬ 
bued with the old spirit and quality of the existing dispen¬ 
sation, and satisfied with its life, failed to comprehend 
either the need, or the quality, of the new dispensation. 
And, as the new feelings and new thoughts of the new 
dispensation necessarily manifested themselves in new 
ways of life, the men remaining in the old dispensation 
judged of the new things from the old standards; and, 
from the old stand-points, they naturally regarded the 
evidences of new life as dangerous innovations, and sin¬ 
ful departures from the good old ways. 


40 Parables of the New Testament. 

THE LORD’S SECOND COMING. 

Such was the condition of things at the first coming of 
the Lord, Jesus Christ; and such is, to-day, the condition, 
at the second coming of the Lord, in a new dispensation 
of spiritual life and light. For the Second Coming of the 
Lord is not an outward and bodily coming, but an inward 
and spiritual coming to the hearts and understandings of 
men, to give them a new quality of inward and outward 
life. And this coming has already begun. 

THE OLD MISUNDERSTANDS THE NEW. 

The old condition never understands the new, because 
the old is not prepared to become the new. The new is a 
step beyond the old ; a new phase of life; a different level 
of existence ; a radical change in the characteristic qual¬ 
ity of the life. And the old, not understanding the new, 
necessarily misjudges the new. 

But the new, having outgrown the old, comprehends 
its own past conditions, and realizes the change; as the 
man born blind cannot comprehend the conditions of the 
seeing eye, except by experiencing the change in his own 
person, when his eyes are opened to sight. 

GARMENTS. 

“ No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old.” 

Garments, clothing and protecting the man, represent 
truths, which spiritually clothe and protect our good affec¬ 
tions. A good impulse, without the protection afforded by 
an intelligent knowledge of truth, often leads to trouble, 
being misdirected. 

And because of the symbolic signification of garments, 
so much is said about them, in the Word of the Lord. 

When it is said to Jerusalem, “ Put on thy beautiful gar¬ 
ments, O Jerusalem, the holy city,” the Church, as the spir- 


Old and New Cloth . 


4i 


itual Jerusalem, is told to array herself in the beautiful 
truths of the Word of the Lord ; and to teach these truths, 
that they may beautify men’s lives. 

And the habit of arraying ourselves in our best gar¬ 
ments, on occasions of worship, and in times of social glad¬ 
ness, represents the mental habit of clothing our minds in the 
truths of the Word, when we approach the Lord and when 
we exhibit our gladness for the blessings He has given us. 

The garments of the priests, in the Jewish worship, were 
regulated by the Lord, to represent His regulation of the 
truths which shall clothe our affections, in their different ex¬ 
periences. 

The pure white garments which are mentioned in the 
Revelation, as clothing the redeemed in the spiritual world, 
represent the pure truths which, by praCtice, purify men’s 
lives. 


GARMENTS REPRESENTATIVE. 

In the old Jewish dispensation, which was representative 
of spiritual things, the clothing was so regulated as to be ap¬ 
propriate to the conditions of the man, or to his representative 
charader. So, in the spiritual life of the new dispensation, 
in the Christian Church, every where, the truths that clothe 
men’s minds are the appropriate garments of the intellect, 
accompanying the corresponding conditions of the affeCtions. 

And even to-day, in our social customs, a person’s gar¬ 
ments often indicate his condition, occupation, official station, 
etc. And, spiritually, a man’s mental clothing, the truths 
in which he clothes his mind, indicate his spiritual condition, 
and' the quality of his life. 

The Psalmist sings, “ Bless the Lord, O my Soul,.... 
who covereth Himself with light, as with a garment i. e. t 
who displays His character in the light of truth. 

The believing woman was healed by touching the Lord’s 
garment, to represent the cleansing of our affeCtions, by 
contaCt with the truth of the Lord’s Word, which regulates 
our conduCt. 


42 


Parables of the New Testament . 


Angels were often seen in shining garments. And it is 
the bright truth which shows us the angelic conditions of 
human life. And, at the transfiguration of Jesus, His gar¬ 
ments were white and brilliant. The letter of the Word is 
as an outer garment, to prote6l its inward, spiritual sense. 

NEW AND OLD GARMENTS. 

* Garments, then, represent truths, which clothe the 
mind. Old garments, in need of repair, represent old 
phases of truth, not in good spiritual order, in the minds of 
men ; old conditions of thought. New garments represent 
new truths, new phases of truth, new ways of thinking. 

The literal sense of the Word, as seen by the merely 
natural mind of man, is, in some respebls, an old garment, 
outgrown and put away, by the man who sees the inward 
spirit of the Word, and who, from the perception of the 
spirit of truth, intelligently sees and understands the now 
illuminated letter of the Scriptures. 

SPIRITUAL GARMENTS. 

The parable illustrates the need of adjusting our doc¬ 
trine to our spiritual growth. “No man putteth a piece 
of a new garment upon an oldno man spiritually does 
so : no man, having outgrown old phases of truth, can 
rationally expeft to make these old ideas serve him in his 
new conditions, by merely patching them with a few new 
ideas. New conditions need new truths, suitable to the 
changed states of the mind. 

PATCHING OLD GARMENTS. 

If we try to patch up our old beliefs, by putting upon 
them a little of the new light, we do not succeed ; for ‘ £ the 
newmaketh a rentthe new truth, like new cloth, is elastic, 
and the old truth, like old cloth,, cannot bear the strain of 


Old and New Cloth. 


43 


use; and it tears. “ And the piece that was taken out of the 
new agreeth not with the old ;” there is no harmony between 
the old views and the new. 

THE WINE. 

The same general principle is taught in the second part 
ol the text: “ And no man putteth new wine into old bot¬ 
tles,” etc. 

Wine corresponds to spiritual truth. For this reason, 
wine is used in the Lord’s Supper, to represent the reception 
of spiritual truth from our Lord. 

In the Scriptures, much is said of wine, and with the in¬ 
ward meaning of spiritual truth, except when the wine is 
mentioned as bad wine, and then it represents truth per¬ 
verted and falsified, corrupted in quality. 

BOTTLES. 

“Bottles,” as vessels to contain wine, represent doctrines, 
which hold and contain the truth. Doctrine is necessary, 
in order to understand the truth; to keep the truth in con¬ 
dition to be used. The bottles mentioned in the text were 
made of the skins of kids and goats. And, in fa6I, in the 
new version of the New Testament, they are called “wine¬ 
skins,” instead of bottles. 

These wine-skins, or bottles, when new, were elastic. 
When new wine was placed in them, the fermentation of 
the wine expanded them. But, when they were old, they 
were hard, and had lost their elasticity. If new wine were 
then put in them, the fermentation of the wine would burst 
them ; and the wine would be spilled, and the bottles would 
be torn. In the parable, old bottles represent old do< 5 hrines, 
old ways of thinking, and old mental conditions. And new 
bottles represent new dodlrines, doctrines adapted to new 
conditions of mind, teachings of the new states of the 
Church. 


44 


Parables of the New Testament. 


The doCtrines of Judaism were old bottles, which could 
not hold the new wine of the Christian dispensation. And 
to-day, the doctrines of the First Christian Church, obscure 
and irrational as they have become, are old bottles, unable 
to hold, and to bear, the new wine of the New-Church, the 
grand spiritual truths of the Lord’s Second Coming. 

NEW TRUTHS. 

When the mind takes a new step, to advanced phases 
of spiritual truth, it must adopt new doCtrines, as vessels to 
contain the new truths, for daily use. The regenerate under¬ 
standing must be of a quality capable of all necessary expan¬ 
sion, to bear the strain which new truths bring upon the 
mind. 

For every new truth, after entering the mind, subjeCfs 
the mind to temptations, spiritual fermentations, that it may 
purge itself of its impurities, and may hold the truth in a 
clear, enduring condition. The truth is not fixedly ours, 
until we have suffered for it, and fought for it, and lived 
for it. 


BREAKING THE OLD BOTTLES. 

When we see the truth in its inward sense, its merely 
apparent literal aspeCt passes away; the expansive power 
of the new truth breaks the old bottle, the old literal doc¬ 
trine, and that bottle perishes. And if we have nothing in 
place of it, the wine of spiritual truth is spilled. For instance: 
a man has believed the old ideas of the creation, literally, as 
given in Genesis. But enlightened instruction and rational 
thought show him that Genesis does not claim to teach 
physical science. The new wine of new truth breaks the old 
bottle of old doCtrine. Now, if the man has not any new 
bottle, new doCtrine, ready for use, the wine will be spilled ; 
i. e ., he will lose the truth; he will rejeCt Genesis, as not a 
Divine book. But Genesis is a Divine book. 


Old and New Cloth. 


45 


But, if he puts the new wine of truth into the new bottle 
of the doCtrine of the spiritual sense of the Word, in which 
Genesis is seen to treat of the spiritual creation and regen¬ 
eration of the human mind, he will save both the wine and 
the bottle, both the truth and the doCtrine. Without the 
bottle of a true doCtrine, he will not be able to have his 
truth in condition for use. 

GARMENTS AND WINE. 

The parable speaks of both the garment and the wine, 
not as a mere repetition, but because the garment represents 
the truth in its outward uses, as a clothing of the mind, and 
the wine represents truth of an inward kind, with inward 
uses, warming and enlivening the spirit. And, in agree¬ 
ment with this faCt, we find, in the Greek of the text, the 
word for new iS not the same, in the two cases. 

The old bottles are, in one sense, the rituals of the Jew¬ 
ish Church, and the new wine is the truth of Christianity- 
Again, the old bottles are the perverted doCtrines of the 
First Christian Church, and the new wine is the truth of 
the New-Church. The old and the new do not agree- 
Vainly would we patch up the old doCtrine with a piece 
from the new; or carry the new wine in the old bottles. 
The Lord said, “Behold, I make all things new including 
doctrines and forms, as well as affections and thoughts. 
The old doCtrines were adapted to the old ideas, but not to 
the new truths. 


ILLUSTRATION, f 

Take, for instance, the old doCtrine of regeneration, as 
an instantaneous operation. As long as a man holds that 
doCtrine, he cannot grasp the New-Church truth, that re¬ 
generation is a gradual process of growth. Even the theo¬ 
logical terms of the old teachings are different from the new. 
Minds that are spiritually old are like the old wine bottles; 


46 


Parables of the New Testament . 


they have expanded to the extent of their ability, and their 
elasticity has departed. They are fixed in their ways, and 
incapable of bearing any further strain. They can hold the 
old wine, but not the vigorous new wine. Truth gives life 
to doctrine, and doctrine gives support to the truth. 

But the doctrine must be able to expand, with the truth. 
As men outgrow the clothing of their boyhood, and need 
garments appropriate to their manhood, so the mind out¬ 
grows old doctrines, and must be clad in new ones, suitable 
to its present conditions. Every system of doctrine is 
adapted to some stage of mental growth; and, outgrowing 
that state, we outgrow its doctrines. 

THE NEW AND THE OLD. 

For instance: to make a New-Churchman, more is 
needed than merely to secure some little idea of the New- 
Church truths, and then to put that idea as a new patch upon 
the old doctrines ; or to pour the new wine into the old bot¬ 
tles. We must have a new system of doctrine, from centre 
to circumference, and a new way of life, to embody the new 
doctrine. And this fact shows the uselessness of trying to 
smuggle New-Church ideas into a man’s mind without let¬ 
ting him know their distinctive quality. In doing this, you 
only patch his old garments with a new piece, or put the new 
wine into his old bottle. He can never make any practical 
use of the new truth, until he acknowledges it as new truth, 
in new doctrine. 


SPIRITUAL DANGER. 

There is danger in superficially adopting new ideas of 
truth, and then trying to go on, with them, with our old 
ideas of life, and our old habits. But the new life cannot be 
held in old habits, or in old ways of thinking. 

We need not merely to be conformed to the world’s 
standards, but transformed by the Spirit of Truth. The 


Old and New Cloth. 


47 


truth for the New-Church is interior truth, truth for the in¬ 
terior mind; but the truth of the old theology is external 
truth; or, often, mere appearance of truth, to the natural 
mind. 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Take, for instance, the dodlrine of the Lord. How do 
men think of God, by the old doctrine? He seems to be 
angry, partial and vindidlive, in charadter, and mysteriously 
divided, in person. Contrast such views with the clear truths 
of the New-Church, teaching the infinite goodness and love 
of the one God, in one Person, the Lord, Jesus Christ. 

Contrast the old dodtrine of a “vicarious atonement,” and 
“justification by faith alone,” with the New-Church dodtrine 
of an at-one-ment, or agreement, between God and man, as 
man shuns evils, and does good, in love, faith and obedience 
to the Lord; and in which the man is saved from the evil 
that he rejedts from his whole life, in feeling, thought and 
condudt. Look at the old do&rine of the literal truth of all 
the Sacred Scriptures, regarded as Divine because the Lord 
guided the writers to be accurate in statement; and contrast 
this with the New-Church truths of the literal and spiritual 
senses of the Scriptures, the body and the spirit of the Word, 
related by correspondence. 

Take the old dodtrine of life, depending upon piety, and 
having little practical relation to men’s adtual evils; and con¬ 
trast that dodtrine with the new dodtrine of life, in which a 
man is shown to be good, just in so far as he does good, and 
shuns evils, in all things of his two-fold life, adting as of him¬ 
self', and yet sustained by the Lord. 

PATCHING THE OLD. 

Now, clearly it is of no use to try to hold these old doc¬ 
trines, and to patch them with pieces from the New-Church, 
nor to use them as old bottles for new wine. “For the piece 


4 8 


Parables of the New Testament. 


that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old,” and 
“new wine must be put into new bottles.” We can not 
hold the new truths as living principles, while our actual 
states of life, and our condu<5t, are governed by the old ideas 
of our natural mind. A New-Churchman must form his 
whole life in the light of the New-Church, and give it ^ 
distinctive quality of the New-Church. 

OLD AND NEW WINE. 

“No man also having drunk old wine, straightway de- 
sireth new; for he saith, The old is better.” Those who are 
satisfied with the old life, do not feel drawn to the new. It 
requires time to produce a New-Churchman; to grow out 
of the old, and into the new. And all who are fixed in the 
old quality of life, are unwilling to change. Being in the 
spirit of the old, they reject the new. Those who live in ex 
ternals, can not be brought, at once, to see and appreciate 
internals. Natural-minded men do not see the realness of 
spiritual life. But the intelligent New-Churchman sees that 
the spiritual life is the real life, governing and forming the 
outward life. 


THE NEW HEAVEN. 

Before a New-Church could be raised up, on the earth, 
a new heaven had to be formed. And, as the new heaven 
increases, its influence will increase, and the New-Church 
upon the earth will increase accordingly; for the New Jeru¬ 
salem must find the right conditions ready for it, before it 
can descend from the heavens. The New-Jerusalem, the 
New-Church, can not descend from heaven, at once, and by 
compulsion, but only as men are prepared to receive it. 
And this will be as the falses of the old theology are removed. 
For what is new can not gain admittance where falses have 
been implanted, unless the falses be removed. 

The question of the descent of the New-Jerusalem is, then, 


Old and New Cloth. 


49 


a question of the readiness and preparation of men to receive 
the new quality of life, by means of the new dodtrine of truth. 
You cannot Christianize a thorough Jew, who is confirmed in 
the spirit and life of the Jewish dispensation; nor can you 
make a New-Churchman out of one who is confirmed in the 
spirit and life of the old-church quality of good and truth. 
The old conditions are not fit receptacles for new life. 

, CONNECTION BETWEEN PARABLES. 

We see a connexion between the parable last considered, 
and the one now under consideration. The parable of “ The 
House on the Rock and the House on the Sand,” taught the 
need of living on the truths that we know. And the para¬ 
ble about the garments and the wine, teaches us that the old 
dodlrines and states of life are not able to hold the new truth 
and new life; and that, in order adlually to receive new 
. truths into our lives, we, ourselves, must be made new, in the 
regeneration. We must be lifted up to the level of the new 
truths. “If ye know these things, happy are ye, if ye do 
them.” 


50 


Parables of the New Testament. 


III. 

<£Ijiltirat in tijc 2l?ariicta. 

(MATTHEW XI. 16-19.) 

MAN'S RESPONSE TO THE LORD’S INVITATION. 


THE LITERAL SENSE. 

In the literal sense, the words “this generation” refer to 
the Jews. The Lord personally appeared to the Jews, and 
walked among them as a man. But “ though He had done 
so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on 
Him.” Especially among the Jews, “He was despised and 
rejedled of men.” At his birth, He was cradled in a manger, 
“ because there was no room for [Him] in the inn;” and, in 
His manhood, though “the foxes [had] holes, and the birds 
of the air [had] nests, the Son of Man [had] not where to 
lay His head.” 

Although the Word was given to the Jews, and although 
Jesus proved His Divine power, yet, when forced to admit 
His power, the Jews accused Him of casting out devils by 
the power of Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. Thus the 
Jews rejedled the Lord, sought to destroy His influence, and 
finally crucified Him. Though He called them to repent¬ 
ance and reformation, yet they remained in their evils: 
though He called them to see, and rejoice in, the heavenly 
treasures He could give to those who would receive them, 
yet they scorned both His treasures and Himself. 

THE INWARD MEANING. 

But, in the spiritual sense, the words “this generation” 
refer to those who are like the Jews, in quality, or chara&er; 



Children in the Markets. 


5 1 


i. e. } who know the teachings of the Word of God, and see 
their power, and yet reject them, in heart and life. 

Such minds are called a “generation,” because the interi¬ 
ors of men are born, or generated, from -certain principles; 
which, in this case, were evil. They are, as Jesus told the 
Jews, of their “father, the devil.” They are, as all others are, 
naturally born into evils; but they will not repent and re¬ 
form, that they may be born again, re-generated, from the 
Lord. The trouble, with them, is not in their ignorance of 
do<5lrine, but in their unwillingness to lead the life which the 
Word teaches. 


THE CHILDREN. 

The “children” are the little ones of the spirit, the prin¬ 
ciples of the Word of God; the goods and truths of inno¬ 
cence and charity; the states of good and truth laid up in 
the interiors of man’s mind, by the Lord, even from child¬ 
hood. In the language of the New-Church, these principles 
and states are called “ remains:” they are things of heaven, 
remaining with the human mind, so that its regeneration 
may be possible. They are not fully-grown principles of 
life, matured by love and thought, grown to manhood in 
the life; they are only little ones, children, needing our 
watchful care, to develop them to their maturity and useful¬ 
ness within us. They are not the life<-principles in which 
we have become confirmed; but they seek to become con¬ 
firmed, fixed in us, by embodiment in our outward life. 

And, for this purpose, they call upon their companions, 
while sitting in the markets. Through them, our Lord calls 
upon us to become regenerated; and He continues so to 
call, as long as we have “ ears to hear.” By means of these 
little ones, His children, He seeks to gain a lodgment for 
His good and truth, within us, where they may grow with 
our growth, and strengthen with our strength, and become 
men of maturity, in us, communicating to us the Holy Spirit, 
from the Divine Humanity of our blessed Lord, Jesus Christ, 
the one only God. 


52 


Parables of the New Testament. 


CALLING TO THEIR COMPANIONS. 

These children, these “remains,” call “to their fellows;” 
they do not appeal to the things of our proprium, or self¬ 
hood, which are already fixed in us; because whatever 
becomes a fully confirmed life-principle in the mind of man, 
whatever becomes a grown man in the mind, continues 
there; and, although it may be much modified, or counter¬ 
balanced, by other principles, yet it is never removed. It 
is a thing which the man has lived himself into, and it is a 
part of him; it is one of the materials of which his house 
is built; and as he builds, so he lives. 

The children, the “remains,” the principles of the Word, 
in the mind, call “to their companions,” to the other children, 
the mind; to those principles of the natural mind and life 
which are now being formed, now growing, not yet fixed, 
or matured. They appeal to these, because these are yet 
young, and are in condition to be trained and formed in an 
orderly way. By means of these “remains,” these spirit¬ 
ual children, the Lord operates, within our minds, upon 
those natural principles, in us, which are now developing, 
and which, like the green and tender twig, may be bent, 
gently, yet firmly, out of its natural inclinations to deformity. 
The interior things belong to our spiritual mind, but the 
“companions” are the principles of our natural mind. 

MARKETS. 

The children are said to be “sitting in the markets.” 
Markets are acknowledged places of trade and traffic, 
known resorts for those who buy, sell or exchange. The 
things of natural life correspond to the things necessary to 
spiritual life, the spiritual principles which feed and clothe 
the human mind. 

And the place where natural things are bought, sold and 
exchanged, represents the state of mind in which a man is 
procuring to himself the things of spiritual life. 


Children in the Markets. 


53 


EXAMPLES. 

He gives one thing for another, as in trade. He gives 
up his self-trust, and procures, instead, trust in the Lord; 
he gives up his pride, and, by trials, buys humility; he ex¬ 
changes his ill-temper for gentleness of spirit; he loosens his 
love from worldly treasures, and fixes it upon heavenly 
treasure. 


THE MENTAL MARKET. 

This state of mind, in which a man is seeking and under¬ 
going these changes, is denoted by a “market,” a place of 
trade and exchange. This is our rational faculty, in which 
everything is examined, and in which we seek what we want. 
In the use of his rational faculty, a man accepts and appro¬ 
priates, makes his own, the good and true principles which 
he sees in the Lord's Word. That the “children” were “in 
the markets,” then, denotes that the “remains,” the prin¬ 
ciples of the holy Word, stored up in our interiors by the 
Lord, seek to operate upon us in our times and states of 
change; in those states in which we are rationally examining 
a new principle, to see if we are willing to exchange what 
we already have for it; in our states of rational thought and 
reflection upon our life and its spiritual needs; in our states 
of seeking such spiritual things as we think we need; in our 
open states, when we are ready to examine and receive. 

ILLUSTRATIONS. 

It is in this sense that our Lord said, “ I counsel thee to 
buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich ; 
and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed;” and that 
He said to the rich young man, “Sell all that thou hast, 
and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasures in 
heaven; and come, follow Me.” 


54 


Parables of the New Testament. 


MENTAL SITTING. 

And the children are “sitting in the markets.” Sitting 
is a more permanent position than either walking or stand¬ 
ing. Sitting represents a state of the will, or love. The 
will has taken its place, come into a certain state. But stand¬ 
ing represents a state of the intelleft, or understanding, a 
pause in the train of thought, preparatory to moving on. 
Therefore, in the spiritual sense, sitting denotes a mental 
state more permanent. That the children were “sitting in the 
markets” denotes that, by means of such “remains,” or 
principles of the Word, stored up in the will, by the Lord, 
there is a perpetual opportunity for man to be regenerated, 
as long as such “remains” exist within him. By this means 
the Lord is permanently present with a man, ever ready to 
operate upon the man’s will, to lead the mind to regener¬ 
ation. 


SPIRITUAL CALLING. 

Naturally, when a man goes out into the mental markets, 
he desires to procure such things as favor his lusts and 
falsities; but the “children sitting in the markets” call “to 
their fellows;” i. e. } the good and truth of the holy Word of 
God, stored in his interiors, call to those principles of his 
natural mind which are now developing, warning them to 
resist their inclinations to buy evil and false things, and 
appealing to them to purchase such things, only, as will de¬ 
velop in them heavenly character. They call to us, when 
we are hesitating; and they say, “ Ho ! every one that 
thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no 
money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and 
milk, without money and without price. Wherefore do ye 
spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor 
for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto Me, 
and eat ye that which is good; and let your soul delight it¬ 
self in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto Me; hear, 
and your soul shall live.” 


Children in the Markets. 


55 


The spiritual mind is formed in the image of heaven. 
And the natural mind should be formed in the image of the 
spiritual mind, embodying inward principles of good and 
truth in corresponding natural affections, thoughts and con¬ 
duct. And our Lord, operating through our spiritual mind, 
sends down into our natural mind, some news of what is 
going on in our spirit. But, if we live for the natural life, 
alone, we shut up ourselves in our natural mind and life, and 
do not heed the whispering of the spirit, which tells of a 
higher and lovelier life. 

CALLING AND SAYING. 

The spirit’s children are represented as “ calling,” and as 
“saying.” “ Calling” with the tones of the voice, denotes an 
appeal to the will and its affe&ions; and “saying” indicates 
an appeal to the intellect and its thoughts. Thus, “calling 
and saying” denote exerting a combined influence upon 
both the heart and intellect. 

PIPING. 

“We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we 
have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented.” . 

Musical instruments are of two classes, stringed and wind 
instruments. The sounds of stringed instruments are sepa¬ 
rate and individual, one string sounding at a time. Thus 
they are like our thoughts, separate and distinCt. And so 
stringed instruments correspond to the things of the spiritual 
degree of our life, the degree of truth, with the thoughts. 
But the sounds of wind instruments are continuous, and as 
one sound, prolonged, and yet varied by the keys. Thus, 
these sounds are like our affections, flowing forth continu¬ 
ously, and yet varied in tone, by the influences bearing upon 
them. 

The pipe was a wind instrument, made of a reed. It re¬ 
lates, therefore, to our affeCtional nature, the life of our will. 
The music of the pipe here represents the interior harmony 


56 


Parables of the New Testament. 


existing in these children, these “ remains ” implanted by the 
Lord. Such harmony results from the celestial afledlion, 
the interior love, contained within these states of good and 
truth, and stored up in the interiors of the mind. These 
things from the holy Word sit “in the markets,” and “pipe” 
to their companions; i. e ., these “remains,” or principles of 
the Word, abide with man, while his mental charadler is 
forming, developing; and they appeal to the growing nat¬ 
ural principles in the man; as interior things, they express 
their interior harmony and happiness, and call upon the nat¬ 
ural mind to seek and receive such harmony and happiness 
for itself. They tell of the glories of regenerate life. This 
is their “piping,” or making glad music with the pipe. 

DANCING. 

And they call upon their fellows, or companions, to 
“ dance ” to this music. Dancing is a joyous motion of the 
body, especially of the lower limbs. It is the bodily response 
to joyous, buoyant feelings of the mind, aroused by music, or 
by good news, etc. The lower limbs correspond to the lower 
parts of the mind ; i. <?., the natural mind. Dancing, therefore, 
corresponds to the joy and active gladness felt in the natural 
mind, when the interior harmony of the spiritual mind comes 
down into the natural mind, by influx ; when the children of 
the spirit, the “remains” stored up in the mind, “pipe” to 
their companions, the children, the developing principles, 
of the natural mind. 

THE RATIONAL MIND. 

And the market, where this is done, is in the rational 
principle of the mind; i. e ., that faculty of the mind which 
considers, examines and compares the feelings and the 
thoughts, to accept what it calls good and true, and to 
reje<5l what it does not approve. 

The rational principle, or faculty, is common ground 


Childi'en in the Markets. 


57 


between the spiritual and the natural minds: it is an ex¬ 
change, a market, into which, from above and within, come 
the children of the spiritual mind, to meet the children of 
the natural mind, which come up there from below and 
without. And when the children of the natural mind heed 
the voices of the spirit’s children, then there is joy in both, 
for the spirit’s children rejoice to communicate their joy, 
and the children of the natural mind rejoice to receive such 
joy; they dance to the sound of the piping. 

HISTORICAL APPLICATION. 

The Jews, as a people, had been given the Word of the 
Old Testament, and our Lord did His miracles before them, 
but they did not perceive the heavenly harmony of the 
truths of the Word, nor did they come into orderly and 
joyous states of the natural mind, from the influx of interior 
things. They professed to venerate the letter of the Word; 
but they interpreted it to agree with their own evils; and 
received little of its spirit. 

PERSONAL APPLICATION. 

And it is so with all who belong to the same spiritual 
“generation,” all who are born into, and remain in, the 
same evils and falsities. And, indeed, it is too much so with 
us all. Our natural minds are so full of worldly concerns 
that they are very slow to catch the inspiration of the spirit. 
The dear children of the spirit sit in the markets, piping to 
the principles of our natural minds, calling upon them to 
see, appreciate and respond to, the heavenly beauties of 
interior good and truth; asking them to receive these heav¬ 
enly principles, and to apply them to life; that the grander, 
freer, more intense, and higher life of the spirit, may come 
out, and find expression and ultimation, in the life of the 
body; that the grand harmonies of heaven may beautify the 
life on earth. 


58 


Parables of the New Testament. 


But, naturally, our eyes look downward, and our ears 
are dull; and, although spiritual principles are taught us, 
“line upon line, and precept upon precept,” we all know 
how slow our natural minds are to co-operate with the spirit ; 
to push on, energetically, upon the natural plane, the beau¬ 
tiful things which the voices of angels ever speak to the 
spirit. We hear the piping, but we do not dance. The 
same old, rigid, cold, dry exterior covers us, offering little 
sympathy to each other; walking through the earth with 
much indifference, gratified by little else than worldly suc¬ 
cesses. 


ANGELIC STATES. 

But, is such the life that embodies the spirit of an angel? 
Is such the vessel to contain the spiritual harmonies of 
heaven? Where is the warm, free, fresh, generous manhood, 
teeming with sympathy and life, joyous and sparkling, rich 
in its “beauty of holiness,” dancing in the gladness with 
which the spirit fills the receptive natural mind? 

If we could, for one moment, see the soft, gentle, beau¬ 
tiful exteriors of an angel, well might we blush for shame 
that we do not cast off the hard, cold scales of the serpent 
from our natural minds; that we do not dance to the music 
of the spirit’s children. 

In His infinite patience, Jesus stands knocking at the 
door of our natural mind, seeking to conjoin us to Himself, 
to save and bless us, filling even our natural man with the 
beauties of heaven. The children are piping; but we are 
slow to dance. We love our cold, non-receptive proprium, 
or self-hood, and are slow to give it up, even for a heavenly 
substitute. 


MOURNING. 


But the children also say, “We have mourned unto you, 
and ye have not lamented.” These children, these “re- 


Children in the Markets . 


59 


mains” stored in the mind, “mourn,” when to man’s rational 
perception and understanding they turn the sad side of the 
picture, showing him his evil and false natural states, and 
calling him to “lament,” to repent of his evils. Through 
these “remains,” our Lord seeks to reveal to us our natural 
states, that the companions, the developing principles of the 
natural mind, may shun and resist all evil inclinations. 

LAMENTING. 

When the natural mind hears this mourning, it should 
“lament;” it should come into a state of contrite humility, 
acknowledging its evils, and looking to the Lord, through 
His holy Word, for help and safety. 

The Jews did not so lament. John, the Baptist, preached 
repentance, and Jesus offered salvation; yet both were re- 
je<5ted, and put to death. John mourned to the Jews, but 
they did not lament; Jesus piped to them, but they did not 
dance. John represented, in one sense, the letter of the 
Word, which calls us to repentance, to a fast, and to a strug¬ 
gle out of the spiritual Egypt, and through the wilderness. 
But Jesus, in the same sense, represented the spirit of the 
Word, which comes to introduce men into the promised land 
of heavenly states of life, full of the riches of love and wisdom, 
and furnishing a feast to the soul. John came, like the lit¬ 
eral law, to tell us, especially, what we must not do, and to 
call our attention to all the regulations which must be made 
precepts of our daily life, to bring us into spiritual order. 
But Jesus came to show us what we may do, if we are pre¬ 
pared to enter into the life which He indicates. He came to 
show us what heaven is, and to lead us into it. And only 
in so far as we undergo John’s baptism of repentance, can 
we be ready to follow Jesus into the new life. In so far a$ 
we fast, and give up feeding our disorderly lower nature, can 
we cultivate an appetite for the feast, the higher life to which 
Jesus calls us, “that bread which came down from heayen, tP 
give life unto the world.” 


6o 


Parables of the New Testament. 


HEAVEN OPEN TO ALL. 

In this beautiful parable, we see the great truth that the 
Lord does not withhold heaven from men, but that He pours 
into our hearts, understanding and lives, all the love, the wis¬ 
dom, and the active joy, that we are willing to live for; and 
that, even when we neglect our opportunities, and refuse His 
gracious offers, He still keeps the subject before us, in all 
times, and by a thousand ways; in His infinite economy, 
using every opportunity to warn us from our evils, and to 
win us to heaven. He gives free grace for all; but those, 
alone, can enjoy it, who are willing to live themselves into 
heaven, by living themselves out of evil and sin. Heaven is 
not in making a man’s circumstances agreeable to his de¬ 
sires, but in leading him to make his desires conform to a 
heavenly quality of life. 


WISDOM. 

“But wisdom is justified of her children.” The children 
of wisdom are those principles of life which are born of wis¬ 
dom. These are justified, made just, or righteous. And 
these good and true principles, being outbirths of spiritual 
wisdom, justify, or prove the quality of, regenerate wisdom, 
by their fruits. We are created for heaven; we can attain 
heaven, if we will. There are undeveloped capacities in 
our minds, unexplored heights in our spirits, into which our 
Lord is, in many ways, seeking consciously to lead us. We 
know but the beginnings of what human nature may be. 
All the heavens are opened to us, and reaching down to 
greet us, and to win us to “taste, and see that God is good.” 

As it is natural for the little child to leap and dance with 
delight, when moved by a very great pleasure, so it is the 
way of the natural mind, to express its delight, when it finds, 
intense satisfaction in the higher life of love which penetrates 
it from its inmost recesses. Have we not often heard the 
sweet voices of the spirit’s children, sitting in the market- 


Children in the Markets. 


61 


place of our rational thought, and calling us to personal re¬ 
pentance and reformation? Every Divine Truth that reaches 
us from the Sacred Scriptures, “pipes” to us of the glories 
of a heavenly life, while it “mourns,” to us, over our lower 
condition. Every such truth is a messenger of our Lord, 
sent to call us to the knowledge and appreciation of what 
is laid up for those who love the Lord, and who live with 
Him. 

No man is without these warnings, and these invitations. 
And if any man fails to be regenerated, it must be because 
he neglects both these warnings and these inducements. 
And, in fa<5t, all the permitted disciplines of our life are op¬ 
portunities for regeneration, when we may turn from our 
self-seeking, and listen to the voices of the Spirit’s children, 
calling us to repentance and to heaven. If we have not done 
the things which our Lord says, we may call “ Lord, Lord,” 
in vain, for we shall not be known, in heaven, as children of 
the kingdom ; but our judgment shall be by the truths of the 
holy Word, which we knew, and yet negle<5ted; and these 
shall say, “We have piped unto you, and ye have not 
danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not la¬ 
mented.” 


6 2 


Parables of the New Testament. 


IV. 

Clje sf'otoer. 

(MATTHEW XIII. 3-8, 18-23.) 

DIFFERENCES IN HUMAN RECEPTIVITY. 


MINDS ARE LIKE SOILS. 

The Lord gives freely to all men, but men differ in their 
willingness to receive the Lord’s gifts. This is the central 
truth of the parable. Men’s minds are like soils; they are 
very different in their reception of the seed sown upon 
them 


THE LORD’S EXPLANATION. 

Our Lord has, Himself, given a general explanation of 
this parable; and yet, in the light of the New-Church, we 
can clearly see that it can be further unfolded, and its spirit¬ 
ual meaning developed. 

When our Lord was on the earth, men were in very ex¬ 
ternal states of mind, and not able to bear the truth in its 
higher phases. But now, in the Second Coming of the Lord, 
men are given a rational insight into the spiritual phases of 
truth. 


THE SOWER AND THE SEED. 

The Sower is the Lord Himself. The seeds are the 
truths of the Lord’s Word. Truths are sown in the mind 
of a man, when he hears or reads the Lord’s Word, or when 
its teachings are communicated to him, in any way. As in 



The Sower. 


6 3 


the truth, so in the seed, there is vitality. Plant the seed 
in good ground, and behold the grand miracle of growth, 
wonderful in its course. And the truth, sown in the recep¬ 
tive mind, grows through successive stages, till it produces a 
mental harvest. And every truth, like a seed, contains with¬ 
in it, the ability to propagate new truths, to perpetuate its 
species; and in this, a seed is an image of the infinite quality 
of the Lord, always creating, never dying. 

The seed is the Word of the Lord. And, in a supreme 
sense, the Lord, Himself, is the Word, the Divine Truth, 
coming down to men. Thus, in the seed of truth, the Lord 
is giving us Himself, His own spirit and life, the vitality' of 
the Divine Love. 

The Lord, as the Son of Man, the Divine Truth incar¬ 
nated, “went forth to sow,” when He came down to save 
men from impending spiritual death. He came, to sow* the 
vital seed of His Word in the field of the human mind. 

In a broad sense, the Lord, as a Sower, has gone forth, in 
every age, in every dispensation, and to every man ; and in 
all stages of each man’s spiritual progress. 

THE FIELD. 

See the field, before and after the work of the sower. 
Before the sower came, the field performed no use, though 
it may have been made ready for use. The plowman may 
have prepared the soil. So, behold the human mind, be¬ 
fore and after die coming of the Lord, as the spiritual Sower. 
How 7 unfruitful the condition of men’s minds, before the ad¬ 
vent of the Lord. And how' gready the w r ork of our Lord, 
as the Sower, changes the conditions of men. 

And, as there is plow ing before sowing, so John the Bap¬ 
tist came to the world, preparing men for the advent of the 
Lord, teaching repentance and baptism, for amendment of 
life. John w T as “the voice of one crying in the wilderness, 
Prepare ye the way of the Lord.” With the plowshare of 
the iron truths of the literal commandments, John sought to 


64 Parables of the New Testament. 

break up the hard soil of the minds of the men of his time. 
And, on the mental ground prepared by John, Jesus sowed 
the seeds of spiritual truths. 

The letter of the Word is a John, preparing the way for 
the work of Jesus, who comes with the spiritual sense of the 
Word. The letter of the Word is the husk of the seed, con¬ 
taining and protecting the kernel of the spiritual sense. Both 
are necessary, like the body and the spirit of a man. 

INFLUX. 

To understand how good principles come to fruit, in 
men’s minds, and how truths multiply, we must know some¬ 
thing of the inflowing of heaven into the human mind. 
Every man has two departments in his mind, or two minds, 
the inward, or spiritual, and the outward, or natural. His 
rational faculty, his ability to see truth as truth, lies between 
his spiritual mind and his natural mind, and communicates 
with both of them ; and thus keeps them in communication 
with each other, when the man is open to spiritual things. 
But, by birth, the man’s natural mind is open ; while his spir¬ 
itual mind is opened by regeneration. 

In our inward spirit, our Lord operates for our spiritual 
good, and in ways unknown to us. But, in our outward 
mind and life we co-operate with the Lord, in keeping His 
commandments. 

As we open our hearts and our intellects to our Lord, He 
comes down to meet us, from His secret abode in our inward 
mind. And, as we freely receive Him, and co-operate with 
Him, He leads us upward and inward, and opens to us the 
doors of our own inward mind, and gives us to dwell with 
Him, in the inward life of a regenerate spirit. 

THE RATIONAL FACULTY. 

Our rational faculty is the means which our Lord uses, 
to open to us the secret doors of our spirit. 


The Sower . 


65 


Therefore our Lord’s appeal to our rationality is not an 
appeal to our intelle&ual nature, alone; but to our hearts, 
through our intelligence. It is an appeal to the whole man, 
through his understanding. 

Evil influences appeal to our self-love, with its passions 
and prejudices; but our Lord appeals to our rational intel¬ 
ligence, which guards the doorway to our inward life. And 
according to our reception of our Lord’s truth, such will be 
our own spiritual condition. 

As we receive the Divine truth, we receive spiritual life, 
in the measure of the quantity and the quality of our recep¬ 
tion. But, as we rejeCt the Lord’s truth, so we close our 
hearts and understandings to spiritual life, and shut out our 
Lord from the control of our conscious life. 

The parable teaches us that there are several ways in 
which men receive the seeds of truth, which the Lord, as the 
great Sower, scatters broadcast upon them. 

THE WAYSIDE. 

“Some seed fell by the wayside, and the fowls came, 
and devoured them up.” 

In the large, open fields, there are hard, beaten tracks 
crossing them, in several directions. And these paths are 
the “waysides.” When the sower scatters his seed broad¬ 
cast, some must fall upon these paths, where the soil is so 
hard that the seed cannot sink into it. Such seed, if not 
crushed by the feet of men or horses, will soon be gathered 
by the birds. 

In a good sense, a “way” is a truth, a mental way, by 
which the mind travels, a principle of life. “ I have rejoiced 
in the way of Thy testimonies.” “Teach me Thy ways, 
O Lord, that I may walk in Thy truth.” 

But, in a bad sense, a way is the way of the wicked, a 
false way, a falsity, or false principle. “Through Thy pre¬ 
cepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way.” 


66 


Parables of the New Testament . 


Every evil mind walks in false ways, which, like hard and 
beaten tracks, reject the seeds of truth. 

The tramp of our selfish passions always wears hard 
pathways in our minds, confirmed by our disorderly life. 
On these false ways of thinking, the seeds of truth make no 
impression, and find no congenial soil. 

Those who receive the seed of the Lord’s Word as on 
a wayside, are those who have no affection for the truth, and 
hence, no concern about it. As travelers by the wayside 
care nothing for the seeds that they tramp upon, so the 
mind that does not love the truth, has no vital interest in 
the truth that casually falls upon the thought. The truth 
takes no hold upon the mind, and does not sink into it. 
“When anyone heareth the Word of the kingdom, and 
understandeth it not,” he does not take it in; he does not 
understand it from the heart. 

THE FOWLS. 

“ And the fowls came, and devoured them up.” “ Fowls ” 
represent our thoughts, flying in the mind. In this parable, 
birds are used in a bad sense, to mean false thoughts, which 
fly through the mind, and catch up, and destroy the influ¬ 
ence of, any truth that may be in the memory. 

These false thoughts spring from self-love. The falsity 
of self-intelligence is “the wicked one,” that catcheth away 
the truth. Such minds are set in their false way of thinking, 
and are unwilling to receive any true principle of life. The 
truths of the Lord’s Word fall upon their minds, as upon 
hard, resisting, beaten paths; lying in the memory, till some 
false thought carries them away, by perverting their mean¬ 
ing, or by rejecting them. 

It is shown, in the do&rine of the New-Church, that 
“every man whose soul desires it, is capable of seeing the 
truths of the Word, in light.” But, when the man has no 
real interest in the truth, his soul does not desire it. 


The Sower . 


67 


THE STONY GROUND. 

Those who are as “stony ground,” have a mere his¬ 
toric faith, a belief because of authority, and not because the 
truth is rationally seen to be true, in its own light. This 
“stony ground,” or rocky ground, does not mean ground 
in which there are many small stones; for such ground, if 
deep and rich, may yield, a good crop. The roots can find 
their way between the stones. But the text speaks of 
ground where the seed “had not much earth;” that is, 
in which there is a thin layer of earth upon a bed of rock, 
affording the seeds very little room for roots. In Luke, 
these minds are spoken of as “they on the rock.” Lying 
near the surface, the seeds will soon spring up, and make a 
show of rapid growth. But they cannot endure, for the 
scorching sun, and the hot wind, dry them up more rapidly 
than they can draw sustenance from the superficial soil. 
And these are persons in whom a superficial intelligence 
overlies the hard unreceptive charadler of their real nature. 

SUPERFICIAL RECEPTION. 

They may be rapid converts, but superficial; delighted 
to hear and know new truths, and loud in proclaiming these 
truths. They may have an emotional, gushing, demon¬ 
strative attachment to the truth, or an arguing interest in it. 
They see the beauty of truth, as they see a lovely flower, or 
a fine face. They may have some clear thought, and some 
external softness of heart, covering a spiritual hardness of 
their inward heart. 

Their ideas make a quick growth, but it is soon cut off, 
because there is no profound depth of spiritual character. 
They have no depth of good ground. They lack inward 
earnestness of purpose. Nothing of truth becomes endur- 
ingly rooted in their nature. 

Often such persons pass for very tender-hearted and 
loving natures. Their emotions are quick, though super- 


68 


Parables of the New Testament. 


ficial. Their tears lie near the surface, and are ready to flow 
at the slightest notice. But their love of truth is not deep 
enough to impel them to shun evils, as sins against God. 

REVIVAL CONVERTS. 

Sometimes we see these characteristics in the boisterous 
zeal and gushing piety of “revival” converts, who are 
moved to ready tears at the thought of the sufferings of Jesus, 
while yet no depth of principle moves them to make the life 
of Jesus their aCtual example, and the principles of Jesus the 
main-springs of all their loves, their thoughts and their con¬ 
duct. Their emotional reception of truth may be sincere, 
as far as they understand their own nature; but it is not 
thorough. It does not reach the real motor-powers of their 
life. 


BEING OFFENDED. 

“Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while; 
for when tribulation, or persecution, ariseth, because of the 
Word, by and by he is offended.” Look at the state of 
society, even among church-members, and see how much 
superficial piety is linked with false views of social life, and 
with infidelity towards all that is good, true and useful, all 
that is pure, clean and healthful, in every department of 
human life; and we comprehend the results of the seed of 
the Lord’s Word sown upon the superficial soil of rocky 
ground. 

The superficial man will not change the quality of his 
affe&ions, for the sake of the truth. If the new truth begins 
to bring the man into trials of mind, or if it persecutes him, 
by seeking to cut off selfish desires, plans and pleasures, he 
turns against it. If the new truth seeks to enter his mind’s 
home, to have its place at his fireside, and to a£t as a coun¬ 
sellor and a reformer in his mental household, he will soon 
cast it out. He can give to the truth a sentimental attach- 


The Sower. 


69 


ment, an emotional advocacy; but when it seeks to compel 
him to shun evils, as sins against God, and to do good, in 
the name of the Lord; to be more honorable, forgiving, for- 
forbearing, patient, loving, amiable, broad-minded, pure- 
minded, and unsuspicious; then he becomes highly of¬ 
fended. 


THE SUN ARISING. 

The “sun” represents our love. In the evil man the rul¬ 
ing-love is self-love. This sun arises, when our self-love is 
aroused to a&ivity, by the opposition of the new truth. The 
new truth, like seed, may quickly spring up, in the external 
emotions of the superficial man; and he may rejoice in the 
truth. But, as soon as his self-love recognizes the heavenly 
mission of the truth, and its opposition to all selfish and evil 
passions, false thoughts, and selfish a<5ts, he is aroused to 
intense opposition to the truth. His self-love sends out its 
hot rays, and scorches, and burns up, the truth that grows 
but superficially in his natural mind. And then “from him 
that hath not, shall be taken away, even that which he seem- 
eth to have: ” for, indeed, he does not really have it, at all. 

ILLUSTRATIONS. 

It was so, in the time of Jesus’ ministry on the earth ; for 
some, even of His disciples, were offended at His sayings, 
and they “went back, and walked no more with Him.” 
And Jesus said, “Blessed is he whosoever shall not be of¬ 
fended in Me.” 

Truths are sown in man’s memory, from infancy, by the 
Lord, from the Word, through parents, teachers and others. 
But when the man begins to think for himself, the passions 
of his self-love arise, and their lusts and falses come out; 
and these may adulterate, falsify and pervert, all that is good 
and true, in the mind. 

These perish, because he has no deep soil for their roots, 


70 


Parables of the New Testament. 


in his heart. Even if he believes a truth, he will give it 
some false application, which will favor his evils, and which 
will destroy the heavenly quality of the truth, in his mind. 

Notice, for instance, how men pervert the idea of what 
constitutes a brave man, by regarding duelling as manly, 
when, in fa<5t, its spirit is a brutal assertion of a self-love, 
which, spiritually understood, is cowardly. 

See, too, how boys think it to be manly to declare their 
freedom from parental restraint, when, in faCt, such self- 
assertion is direCtly opposed to the whole spirit and life of 
an angel; and an angel is the noblest example of a finite 
man. And an angel becomes more angelic, the more he 
loves to be led by his heavenly Father, rather than to de¬ 
clare his independence. Those who declare their independ¬ 
ence of the Lord are in the hells. 

TRIBULATION. 

When a new truth, admitted into the thought, begins to 
expose the quality of our affections, thoughts and conduft, 
then tribulation and persecution arise, in our minds; and we 
are brought into temptations, in which the new truth and 
the old character struggle for the mastery of our minds and 
lives. If the truth has taken a merely superficial hold upon 
us, and there is not sufficient depth of goodness in which to 
root itself, because our real nature is as a hard, unreceptive 
rock, then the temptations will carry off the truth, and 
destroy its influence. 

There are persons who learn the doClrines of the New- 
Church, and think they heartily love these doCtrines. But 
they love to know them, not to pra<5tise them. They in¬ 
wardly love themselves; and they use the clear truths of the 
New-Church as weapons of warfare, in argument. Then 
they rejoice in these do&rines, because such doCtrines help 
them to rejoice in their own intelligence. But when these 
doCtrines are used against their own evils, they are offended 
at the truth. 


The Sower. 


7i 


TESTING CHARACTER. 

Trials and persecutions are tests of chara6ter. Spirit¬ 
ually, it is, with the Christian, as it was physically, with the 
Israelites, the things which may abide the fire must be made 
to go through the fire. In the fire, the pure metal is separ¬ 
ated from the dross. 

The Word “tribulation” is suggestive. The tribulum is 
the roller used in threshing grain. And it represents disci¬ 
pline, by which the Lord separates the good from the evil, 
in men’s minds, as grain is separated from the chaff. 

It is by trials that we are cleansed. We never know 
what a principle is worth to us, until we are tried for it. In 
our untried conditions, very often, “half of our virtues arise 
from our being out of the way of temptation.” But the trial 
compels us to define our position. If we truly and deeply 
love good and true principles, we shall cling to them, as to 
life, and be willing to part with anything that opposes them. 

But, if we love our own selfishness, more than we love 
good principles, then the more those principles show their 
opposition to our evils and falsities, the more promptly and 
decidedly we shall give up the good principles, to save our 
selfishness. “All that a man hath will he give for his life.” 
And his inward life is the life of his loves and of his 
thoughts. 

Good men bear trials, and, in them, lose their natural 
weaknesses. 

“ The good are better made by ill, 

As odors, crushed, are sweeter still.” 

But the evil, by trials, lose even what superficial love of good 
and truth they previously had, but which formed no part of 
their inward character. 


ENDURANCE. 

The good man hath root in himself. The root lies be¬ 
low the surface, and out of sight. So, the good man’s pro- 


72 


Parables of the New Testament. 


found grasp upon spiritual principles is not a thing always 
seen by a casual observer. But, in the inner life of the 
Christian, there are depths of root, which the Lord sees and 
knows, though the world sees them not. According to our 
depth of earnestness in principle, will be our ability to stand 
steadfast amid the trials of daily life. “Every branch in 
Me that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth 
more fruit. ” 

By experience, we learn to know men, not by their mere 
professions, be these ever so abundant; nor by their enthusias¬ 
tic emotions, however profuse; but by their enduring quality , 
by their ability and willingness to “stand like an anvil,” 
while the world hammers upon them ; by their steadfast ad¬ 
herence to their cherished principles, amid all the storms of 
temptation; their strong roots striking deep into the good, 
rich soil of their loving hearts, and drawing an inward 
strength, which enables them to bear all the withering influ¬ 
ences that come upon them. 

Our best and highest life comes to us only after our 
greatest sorrows. The courageous struggle develops our 
noblest strength. “As thy day, so shall thy strength be.” 
“Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness 
sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” 


THE THORNS. 

“ And some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang 
up and choked them. . . . He, also, which received seed 
among, the thorns, is he that heareth the Word; and the 
care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the 
Word, and he becometh unfruitful.” 

“ Thorns ” are the lusts of evil, including the anxieties of 
our selfishness. When such lusts and anxieties occupy the 
mind, they destroy and suffocate all the Divine truths taught 
to the man. They make the man worldly, instead of spirit¬ 
ual. The life is kept in the love of self and the world, and 


The Sower. 


73 


the man is unfruitful as to good. Worldly anxieties assign 
to the sensuous and external life, a fictitious value. 

Our natural and worldly lusts, like the thorns, easily catch 
fire, and rapidly burn. Those who are like thorns, have, per¬ 
haps, a desire to know truths, and to be intelligent, but they 
do not seek knowledge to apply it to their own regenera¬ 
tion. 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Such persons may be very religiously inclined, in out¬ 
ward emotion, in piety, and in professions. And they may 
regard themselves as religious persons. 

Such men, loving the world and the praise of men more 
than they love heaven and the praise of God, will not ad¬ 
mit into their will, any truth that will draw them away from 
worldly lusts. They may be delighted with sermons, if these 
are supposed to be eloquent. But such minds are interested 
in the sensuous eloquence, not in the truth, as truth. And, 
in such minds, the seeds of truth fall among the thorns of 
worldly lusts. 

Where there is earth enough to grow thorns, there is 
enough for wheat. But the trouble is in trying to grow both 
the wheat and the thorns, together. If the thorns have 
possession of the soil, there will not be room enough for the 
wheat. The thorns will oppose the wheat, in two ways; 
they will draw out the sustenance of the soil, and they will 
overshadow and tangle, and choke, the wheat. 

The thorns have the .advantage, in being native to the 
soil; they are at home in it. And so, in our natural minds, 
the lusts of the world find a congenial home, and flourish. 
And, spiritually, our evils and lusts of worldliness draw out 
the strength of our affeCfions, as the thorns suck the susten¬ 
ance from the soil. And, as the thorns choke the wheat, so 
the rapid growth of our worldly lusts will choke the good 
influences of the heavens, and leave the seed of truth un¬ 
fruitful. 


74 Parables of the New Testament. 

Heaven flows into the open mind, with its warmth of love, 
and its light of truth. But if the mind is filled with a rank 
growth of sensuous and worldly lusts, these will pervert the 
heavenly influences, and destroy their quality, in the mind. 
The truth that then lies in the memory, can not receive the 
vivifying influences of the heavens; and thus, cut off from 
the source of life, the seed becomes unfruitful. 

WORLDLINESS. 

This choking by thorns is the result of “the care of 
this world, and the deceitfulness of riches i.e., the worldly 
spirit in which we engage in our occupations and pleasures. 
Proper care for what we do, and what we have, is wise and 
useful. Cares and riches are useful to us, if properly used. 
Their bad influence is in the abuse, and in their deceitful¬ 
ness, when abused. It is right to have worldly occupation, 
and to engage in it with energy, ability and industry. It is 
right to acquire wealth, honestly and usefully, for the sake 
of performing uses. But avarice is infernal. 

Worldly cares may absorb too much of our attention, 
and of our affection. Martha was told that she was too 
much cumbered with serving; too much taken up with the 
externals of life, and negledfing the “one thing needful,” 
spirituality. “ No man can serve two masters.” Therefore, 
spiritual things should be the masters, in the minds, and 
worldly cares the servants. 

When men give themselves up to worldly cares, the ex¬ 
ternal things of the sensuous life, they are apt to depend 
upon their own supposed prudence,^and to forget the Divine 
Providence. It was this self-trust, and this sensuous life, 
which drove men out of the condition of life symbolized by 
the garden of Eden. 

The Lord can truly bless men, only in so far as they trust 
in Him, and follow His teachings. We often find men who 
say they intend to become religious, as soon as they get their 
worldly affairs in good shape. But our Lord teaches us to 


The Sower. 


75 


adopt the very opposite plan: “Seek ye, first, the king¬ 
dom of God, and His righteousness ; and all these [external] 
things shall be added unto you,” according to your spiritual 
and natural needs. No man can put his worldly affairs in 
good spiritual order, except by regeneration. 

INDIFFERENCE. 

The condition of mind represented by the thorny ground 
is not one of outward opposition to the truth, as in the case 
of the wayside. When a man comes to attack our belief, 
by arguments, our interest in the truth impels us to resist 
the opposer’s arguments. But our own self-trust is a far 
more dangerous enemy to our spiritual life than all the argu¬ 
ments of all the infidels. There is a subtle, insidious power 
in our own indifference to spiritual things. And this indif¬ 
ference grows, as we become too much interested in the 
cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches; i. e ., as 
the sensuous life attracts and absorbs our affedlion and 
attention. Then our mental thorns grow rapidly, and choke 
whatever of spiritual wheat the Lord may have sown in our 
minds. How weak the virtue of the mind which seeks to 
cultivate both the wheat and the thorns, together. “Ye 
cannot serve both God and Mammon.” 

RICHES. 

The deceitful riches are not merely material wealth, but 
also all possessions, physical and mental, which we love for 
our own sake, and selfishly, rather than for their wise use. 
Knowledge, intelle6fual ability, personal appearance, social 
position, fame, official position, or anything else that we think 
we possess, and that make us feel that we are better than 
others, is a dangerous kind of riches, which may become 
deceitful to our souls, and destru&ive to our spiritual life; 
choking up all the seeds of good and true principles, which 


76 Parables of the New Testament . 

our Lord of Love has carefully sown in our unappreciating 
minds. 

For, in our heart, and in our intellect, these things, when 
loved selfishly, occupy our afifeCtions and our thoughts, and 
usurp the places which should be given to the Lord’s good 
and true principles of spiritual life. 

These are the riches, with which it is hard for a man to 
enter into the kingdom of heaven; because, loving such 
riches, we trust in them, rather than in character and regen¬ 
eration. In heaven, i. <?., in a heavenly quality of character, 
riches of all kinds must be loved as uses, as means to good 
ends, and not as ends, themselves. 

ILLUSTRATIONS. 

See, for instance, even in this country, and still more so 
in the monarchical countries of Europe, many men of mean 
and low character, and of very limited intelligence, who hold 
themselves above their fellows, merely because their remote 
ancestors were men of respectable abilities, or tyrants of 
world-wide fame, or robbers of unusual atrocity and success ; 
priding themselves, often, in the greatness of their family, in 
its descent from ancestors possessing unusually complete 
qualifications for the infernal regions. Such pride is a very 
foolish thing. 

Spiritually, in the fields of human society, as in the 
wheat fields, it is the empty head that holds itself highest 
above its fellows. Men may be highly intellectual, and yet 
spiritually empty. And Jesus, Himself, though Divinely 
intelligent, was meek and lowly. And the higher the angels 
are, in character, the more humility they have, and the less 
self-assertion. 

See, too, how the world regards position, rather than 
character. In politics, see how men of very inferior abilities, 
and great only in the enormous quantity of their self-asser¬ 
tion, clamor and intrigue, and corruptly bargain, for official 
positions, for which they must know themselves to be utterly 


The Sower. 


77 


unqualified; hoping to exalt their own littleness by the dig¬ 
nity of the coveted office. And when they attain their ends, 
what are such riches to them, but thorns, choking whatever 
of good and true life they might have enjoyed, had they 
been satisfied with an humble life of quiet usefulness. 

And especially is the danger increased, when this lust 
for mental and material riches is linked with too great anx¬ 
iety about the cares of this world. Not without serious con¬ 
cern, can the thoughtful observer look upon the high- 
pressure life of strain and worry, that now prevails in Amer¬ 
ica, especially in the West. The physical development of 
the country is progressing so rapidly, that both the attention 
and the afife&ions of the majority of men seem to be ab¬ 
sorbed in material things, to the exclusion of any profound 
interest in spiritual culture. 

In the mad race for supremacy, society is being honey¬ 
combed with moral decay. The greed of gain, and ambition 
for fame, take form in all kinds of fraud, personal and official. 
Trickery and deception abound, in all departments of life. 
Extravagance and dissipation are rampant. Is it any 
wonder that these thorns of the senses choke out the higher 
life of the spirit? 


A QUESTION ANSWERED. 

In these circumstances, what shall the young man do, 
who finds himself, with fine sensibilities and ardent hopes, 
yet filled with a spirit of ambition? Let him clearly put it 
to his own rational intelligence, that entire absorption in the 
world’s life and pleasures, means the closing of his soul to 
the grandest and noblest phases of human life, as found in 
the culture of the spirit. Let him “ Seek, first, the kingdom 
of God, and His righteousness,” for, only as he becomes 
spiritual-minded can he, innocently and usefully, and under 
Divine guidance, engage in the duties and pleasures of the 
world. 

If he does not hold fast to the truths of the Lord’s 


78 


Parables of the New Testament. 


Word, his material and mental riches, and his worldly cares, 
will be as dangerous thorns, growing with amazing rapidity, 
until his mind is full of them; and then they will choke all 
the good seeds of heavenly truths that his loving Lord, 
through the loving ministrations of his parents and teachers, 
and of the angels, may have sown in his youthful mind. 

“ If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out.” As long as we 
regard any material or selfish mental possessions as real 
riches, we shall be like the rich young ruler, who went to 
Jesus, inquiring/* What shall I do, that I may inherit eternal 
life,” and who, when he learned that he must give up what 
he had regarded as his best possessions, felt sorrowful, and 
went his way, unwilling to follow the Lord, in a life of hum¬ 
ble usefulness; unwilling to secure heaven, at the cost of 
denying himself. 

THE GROWTH OF THORNS. 

Painfully, and yet frequently, are we called to see the 
degeneration of charadler consequent upon the growth of 
these mental thorns in the minds of the young, of both 
sexes. Beginning with indulgence of the temper, and of the 
sensuous taste for things of the world, to the forgetfulness of 
spiritual principles, the charadfer degenerates into a condi¬ 
tion of general unfaithfulness to moral and spiritual obliga¬ 
tions. And it slides down the descending scale, until heart¬ 
less unfaithfulness to the marriage-relation fills the measure of 
iniquity, and sounds the death-knell of all the decent, peace¬ 
ful and heavenly virtues which belong to “the measure of a 
man, that is, of an angel.” 

PERSONAL APPLICATION. 

Have you not, dear reader, often felt discouraged, at 
the slow growth of spirituality in your mind? If you have, 
and if you have diligently searched for the cause of delay, 
you have found it in some evil feeling, or false thought, or 


The Sower. 


79 


sinful habit, which you have allowed to choke your wheat. 
Some infirmity of temper, or unkindness of feeling, or cen¬ 
soriousness of thought, or unguarded habit of the tongue, 
has been your hindrance to spiritual growth. And if you 
have afterwards attained any better growth, it has been by 
a resolute self-denial, in the very line of your discovered 
weakness. 

Success lies before us all; but we must work in the right 
way. “ Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among 
thorns.” Then “there shall be no longer, to the house of 
Israel, a pricking brier nor a grieving thorn.” 

DISCIPLINE PROVIDENTIAL. 

The trials and disciplines of our life are permitted, in the 
Divine Providence, as a means of keeping down the growth 
of our thorns. For, in many cases, an easy prosperity would 
be a most dangerous circumstance, helping our thorns rather 
than our wheat. And yet how hard we generally struggle 
against the very discipline which is Divinely permitted for 
our greatest good, and which we might make the means of 
great spiritual progress. 

It may seem singular that the danger is said to come 
to us from the two extremes, cares of the world, and the 
riches which are supposed to free us from cares. But the 
worldly anxiety of care, and the bad use of riches, both 
spring from the same principle of selfishness, which, in one 
case, struggles to procure the means of indulgence, and, in 
the other, grows indolent and sensuous, by indulgence. 

CORRESPONDENTIAL THORNS. 

How sadly appropriate it was, that the evil nation which 
crucified their Saviour-God, should, with intended mockery 
have crowned Him with thorns, substituting their own evils 
for His crown of spiritual life. And it is even so with our¬ 
selves, that the less we shun evils as sins, and the more we 


8o 


Parables of the New Testament. 


fall into indulgence of our evils, the more we “ put good for 
evil, and evil for good/’ confusing our own minds, darkening 
our own spiritual intelligence, and choking our mental wheat 
with the thorns of sin. The days of our purest life are also 
the states of our clearest intelligence. 

WHERE THE FAULT LIES. 

In all the three cases of failure of the seed, (on the way- 
side, in the stony ground, and among thorns,) the fault was 
not with the seed, but with the soil. The Sower sows good 
seed, only; and He sows broadcast. And so, in all circum¬ 
stances, the seed of the Lord’s truth is sown upon our 
minds. 

Perhaps our self-love would like to assign our spiritual 
failures to our sickness, or our poverty, or our business-cares, 
or bad luck, or the wrong-doings of others. But these are 
never causes of our failures. The cause lies always in our 
own hearts, and in our own lives. 

It is not enough to see that good seed is sown in our 
minds, but also that the soil of our minds is in condition to 
do its part. In the three failures mentioned in the parable, 
the first was because the soil was not in condition to receive 
the seed; the second was in poor condition; and the third 
soil, though good enough, was too full of other things. 

In the first case, the seed did not spring up, at all; in the 
second, the plant withered and was scorched, before its ma¬ 
turity ; and in the third, the plants were choked by thorns, 
before maturity. In each case, the mind of the man is at 
fault; it either rejects, or perverts, or suffocates, the truths 
of the Lord’s Word. When truths are taught us from the 
Lord, or good suggested, our rational faculty must be turned 
upward and inward, to receive the light of heaven, and to 
bring that light down in its application to the things of our 
life on earth. Our rational faculty must submit itself to the 
Lord, and be regenerated. Then our minds will come into 
the condition of good ground. 




The Sower. 


81 


THE GOOD GROUND. 

“But other seed fell into good ground, and brought forth 
fruit, some a hundred-fold, some sixty-fold, some thirty-fold. 
... He that received seed into the good ground is he 
that heareth the Word, and understandeth it; which also 
beareth fruit, and bringeth forthor, as it is expressed in 
Luke, “ But that on the good ground are they who, in an 
honest and good heart, having heard the Word, keep it, and 
bring forth fruit with patience.” 

To hear the Word is to hear the truth; not merely to 
hear the statement of doftrine, but also intelligently to hear 
the teachings of the Word, as principles of life. And to un¬ 
derstand the Word is not only to have an intelleftual com¬ 
prehension of its meaning, but also to take it into the under¬ 
standing, as a principle of life; it is to understand from the 
heart, and in the love of truth. 

Our Lord said, “Take heed how ye hear.” Those who 
always hear the truth with doubts, and who oppose it with 
natural reasonings, imagine themselves to be intelligent. 
But the faft is precisely the contrary. Genuine spiritual in¬ 
telligence is the result of a receptive state of the will, which 
induces an openness of the understanding towards the light 
of spiritual truth. Properly to receive spiritual truth, we need 
to have “an honest and good heart.” We must be disposed 
to believe. A well-disposed heart, and simplicity of char- 
after, will use the truth, to live upon. 

ILLUSTRATION. 

Thomas, the apostle, would not believe in the resurrec¬ 
tion of Jesus, until he had been given proof, by demonstration 
to his senses. But Jesus said, “ Thomas, because thou hast 
seen Me thou hast believed; blessed are they who have not 
seen and yet have believed. ” Jesus plainly taught Thomas that 
an interior openness to truth is better than an external demon¬ 
stration of truth. “ He that is of God, heareth God’s words.” 


82 


Parables of the New Testament. 


He who feels no especial need of the truth, and no press¬ 
ing desire for it, is generally in a state of doubt about the 
truth; but those who are longing for the truth, for the 
purpose of amending their lives, are well-disposed towards 
the truth. They hear with their ears, and understand with 
their hearts; and when the truth comes to them, they are 
inwardly in condition to recognize it to be truth. They see 
that it is what they want, and what they can practically use, 
in the growth of their spiritual character. They are as good 
ground. They have a rational and affeCtionate understand¬ 
ing of the truth. They give their profound attention to it. 

The truth does not do permanent good to anyone, unless 
he has good ground in his will, his heart, which impels him 
to take the truth, not as a matter of notions, or of speculation, 
but for use, in shunning evils because they are sins, and in 
doing good. 

We can easily see what great advantage a man has, 
whose will is well-disposed towards the truth. Otherwise, 
his mind is as hard ground ; and then the man is not in an 
affirmative state towards the truth. And all the bad men¬ 
tal birds, all the false thoughts of his natural and sensuous 
reasonings, will come and peck at the truth, until there is 
nothing left of it, in his mind. In that condition a man 
never really gets hold of the truth. His mind remains in 
a negative state. Hence, there is great need to keep our 
natural reasonings under control of our rational thought, 
and to refuse to allow our senses to pass judgment upon 
things that are beyond their comprehension. 

QUALITY OF GOOD GROUND. 

The characteristics of good ground are softness of soil, 
depth, richness, and freedom from obstructions. So, in 
the mind, good ground must be soft, ready to receive the 
seed of truth, not hardened by the indulgence of evils 
and falses. And it must be deep, profound in its capacity 
to receive and hold the truth. 




The Sower. 


83 


A mere intellectual readiness to take ideas may cover a 
hardened condition of the heart; it may be merely a thin 
layer of earth, over a bed of rock. The mind, too, like the 
good ground, must be kept in clean condition, free from 
thorns and weeds. The cares of the world, and the pleas¬ 
ures of the senses, must be kept under control of the spirit. 

Many of the conditions of the ground can be controlled 
by the farmer. The ground can be kept in good condition, 
by proper plowing, weeding and general care. So the man 
must do his part of the work, before the Lord can produce 
the harvest. A man must learn truth, from the dodlrine of 
the Word, as taught in the Church. He must know who the 
Lord is, and what He is, and who the neighbor is, and what 
love is, what is good and true and useful, and what is evil 
and false and sinful. He must learn about his own spiritual 
life, and its possibilities. 

When we love to know these things for use, we are in 
the love of truth. Then our minds are in the condition of a 
field prepared and ready for the seed. And the Lord, as the 
Sower, scatters His truth broadcast over our minds. The 
seed, the sun and the rain, are given to all kinds of ground. 
But the results are different. So, “ the Lord is good to all, 
and His tender mercies are over all His works“ He mak- 
eth His sun to shine on the evil and on the good, and send- 
eth rain on the just, and on the unjust.” But the results are 
according to the quality and quantity of the soil. 

ON, OR IN, THE GROUND. 

In the case of the good ground, the seed fell not only 
upon the ground, but also into it. The mind opened itself 
to the truth, and gave it an interior reception. The seed 
penetrated into the richness of the soil, into the depths of the 
will, as well as into the understanding. In this condition, 
the mind keeps the Word. “Give me understanding, that 
I may keep Thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole 
heart.” 


84 Parables of the New Testament. 

Yet there are some, who seem to think that all that is 
necessary is for the truth to pass through the mind, in the 
memory, leaving its impression, and passing out, again, 
making room for something else. But no truth becomes a 
living reality to a man, until he keeps it; until it abides with 
him, as one of his mental family. “If ye abide in Me, and 
My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it 
shall be done unto you.” Truth is of use, only as it becomes 
an abiding principle of a man’s life, embodied in his deeds. 

VARIETIES OF GOOD. 

It may be asked, Why is the mental ground called good, 
when yet it has need to be made good ? But the early good 
of the mind is natural, not spiritual. It is not like the ground 
bearing a full harvest, but like the ground ready for the seed. 
It is well-disposed. 

The mind is always under preparation by the Divine 
Providence. From our infancy, the Lord implants in our 
minds, states of good affedtion and of true thought, which, in 
the New-Church phraseology, we call “remains,” remnants, 
things of an interior life, laid up in our interiors, by the Lord, 
to bring us into good condition. These “remains” are 
means of preparing our minds for the reception of the seed 
of Divine Truth. 

If we love these inward things of life, and seek to culti¬ 
vate them, they enable the Lord to pour His heavenly in¬ 
fluences upon our minds, and into them. But, if we despise 
and resist the promptings of these “remains,” we harden our 
minds against all other truth and good. As we see our tend¬ 
encies towards evils, if we resist them, we shall grow to be 
averse to evils. But, if we love, cherish and practise these 
evils, we shall choke up the better things, the “remains,” in 
our inward minds. And then our minds will grow hard, beat¬ 
en down by the constant tread of our selfish passions, and 
affording no openness to the seeds of the Lord’s Word. 

Thus, often we are responsible for the hardness of our 


The Sower. 


85 


minds, because that hardness is a result of our own evil life. 
We may, in that condition, have abundance of knowledge, 
but no disposition to use it, in regeneration. But the good 
ground of an “honest heart” brings forth abundant fruit. 
Where the seed of living truth finds any good soil, it soon 
shows its vitality, in its growth. The “honest heart” re¬ 
ceives truth with genuine and devout affection, for the gov¬ 
ernment of the life. 

The ground represents the love, the affection. And the 
differences in those who receive the seed are differences in 
their ground, that is, in the quantity and the quality of their 
affedlions. 

Intelligence, alone, does not bear fruit in regeneration, as 
light, in winter, does not produce vegetation. But intelli¬ 
gence must be united to affe< 5 fion for the truth, as the light 
of the sun must be united with the heat of the sun, as in 
summer, to produce the harvest. 

BEARING FRUIT. 

The heart that is good ground, goes on to bear fruit; to 
do the things which truth teaches; to cease doing evil, and to 
do good. Love to the Lord, and charity towards the neigh¬ 
bor, are ultimated, or embodied, in a life of usefulness. The 
proof of the goodness of the ground is in its produ6Iiveness. 
So is it in regeneration : the evidence of our regeneration is 
the increase of our practical goodness and usefulness. “ By 
their fruits ye shall know them.” “Do men gather grapes 
of thorns, or figs of thistles?” Our increase of goodness 
may be only thirty-fold, but it must be a6hial increase. That 
which does not increase, comes to no spirituality. 

INDIVIDUAL GROWTH. 

The parable refers not only to different classes of minds, 
but also to different states and degrees of regeneration, in 
each individual mind. We notice, in the parable, that the 


86 


Parables of the New Testament. 


individual ground becomes better, in each succeeding con¬ 
dition. The seeds enter more deeply into the soil, they grow 
better, and they endure longer. So, in the regeneration, 
every regenerating mind goes through these conditions, in 
its progressive growth ; it meets these dangers, and conquers 
them, under the Lord’s providence. 

See the force of the parable, as it refers to the Church. 
What constitutes the Church ? Not dodtrine, alone, but life 
according to dodtrine, the fruit of truth. All who have doc¬ 
trine are not truly in the Church. In the parable, all receive 
the truth, at first, into the memory. But only the good 
ground holds the truth until it bears fruit. So, in the Church, 
it is not dodtrine, alone, but a life of love and usefulness, which 
makes a man a Christian. No truth can save a man, until 
he lives by it. 


THIRTY-FOLD, ETC. 

Even with good men, there are degrees of reception of 
truth, both in quantity and in quality; “Some a hundred¬ 
fold, some sixty, some thirty.” These three degrees of fruit¬ 
fulness are the three discrete degrees of regenerate life, the 
celestial, the spiritual, and the natural. 

All these numbers are mutiples of ten. The number, ten, 
denotes “remains,” the states of life implanted in the inte¬ 
riors of the growing spirit. If these “remains” are devel¬ 
oped into the conscious life of the man, to the natural degree, 
only, this result will be accomplished by simple obedience to 
the commandments, as external laws. In this state there are 
three tens, or thirty. Three denotes fulness, as regards truth. 

If the man can be led to the next higher, or more interior, 
step of spiritual growth, he will come into the spiritual de¬ 
gree, the state of intelligent love of truth, as a known princi¬ 
ple. Then he brings forth fruit sixty-fold. 

Six denotes a state of mental combat, as in the six days 
of creation, or regeneration, and the six days of labor, before 
the seventh day, or complete state. 


The Sower. 


37 


One hundred, as a round number, represents a full state, 
as to goodness, a full state of progress. Those who bear 
fruit one hundred-fold, are those who come to the full state 
of complete regeneration, the celestial state, or degree of full 
and supreme love to good, and to the Lord. In this state, 
the “remains” are fully developed into the man’s conscious 
life. 

Thus, the three kinds of productiveness in the soil repre¬ 
sent the three conditions, or discrete degrees, of regenerate 
life, as seen in the three heavens. And, on the other hand, 
the three conditions of failure to produce fruit, represent the 
states of perverted life, in the three hells. Here are repre¬ 
sented complete conditions, confirmations in both good and 
evil. 

But the celestial state will not seem the most attractive, 
except to those who are, spiritually, in condition to appre¬ 
ciate it. There are sentimental persons, to whom the moon¬ 
light is more beautiful than the sunlight, the blossom more 
attractive than the ripened fruit, and the youthful maiden 
more lovely than the mature matron. Such taste belongs 
to the early states of Faith, rather than to the harvest of 
profound and interior Love. 

In more advanced states, the maturer things are recog¬ 
nized as the most beautiful, as a principle embodied in use¬ 
ful aCtion is more lovely than an unproven sentiment; and 
a celestial angel is most fully in the “measure of a man.” 

READERS OF THE NEW-CHURCH WRITINGS. 

Swedenborg, speaking of the state of the world, says, 
“ There are five classes of those who read my writings: the 
first rejeCt them, altogether, being confirmed in other doc¬ 
trines, or in no truth at all. The second receive them as 
matters of curiosity. The third receive them intellectually, 
and are in some degree pleased with them; but when they 
require a motive to govern their lives, they remain where 
they were before. The fourth receive them persuasively, and 


88 


Parables of the New Testament. 


are in some degree led to renounce evils as sins, and to 
do good. The fifth receive them with delight, and con¬ 
firm them in their lives.” Such are the conditions of men’s 
minds as to the reception of the New-Dispensation. 

THE HARVEST. 

The more fully the truth takes possession of the mind, 
the greater will be the spiritual yield, in the harvest. The 
Lord always works for the greatest harvest. But, in each 
case, He can bring forth only what the state of the man 
will allow. He cannot “gather grapes of thorns, or figs 
of thistles.’’ “ Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear 
much fruit.” And, indeed, this will be a motive for the 
good man, in trying to do the best work, that it most dis¬ 
plays the goodness and greatness of the Lord. The more 
we truly and spiritually glorify our Lord, the more and 
the better will be our spiritual fruit; and the more we 
glorify ourselves, the less will be our good fruit. 

The seeds that fall upon the wayside, the stony ground, 
and the rocky ground, do not injure the ground. And 
so, spiritually, one reason why our Lord taught in para¬ 
bles, was that men might, if prepared, hear and understand 
the truth ; and if unprepared, they might escape injury by 
truth that would pass over them, without making any im¬ 
pression upon them, which they could profane. 

Nearly everyone supposes he is interested in the truth, 
and in search of it. But he does not always heed the qual¬ 
ity of his interest in the truth, whether he is superficially 
or profoundly interested. If we find our minds hardened 
against the truth, we must plow up the wayside. If our 
hearts are as rock, we must have them softened and 
broken up by love to our Lord, that the soil may be deep¬ 
ened. “Is not My Word like a fire, saith the Lord : and 
like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces ?” If we find 
thorns in our wheat-fields, we must cut down the thorns. 

“Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among 


The Sower . 


89 


thorns.” Seek regeneration; and then “he that goeth 
forth weeping, bearing precious seed, doubtless shall re¬ 
turn again, after many days, with rejoicing, bearing his 
sheaves with him.” 


HEARING. 

In the Lord’s temple men seek the truth. And do 
they fully recognize the important fact that two things are 
necessary to the teaching of truth, good preaching and 
good hearing ? There must be not only good seed, but 
also good ground. No amount of work in the pulpit, will 
sow the seeds of truth in unheeding pews. But good 
hearing, in the congregation, is apt to induce good preach¬ 
ing. “ Take heed how ye hear ?” Hear heartily, with open 
hearts, seeking the truth, for use in regeneration. Our 
Lord gives very few directions about preaching, but He 
says much about hearing. Hearers should always remem¬ 
ber that it is their duty, as well as the preacher’s, to goto 
church prepared, by shutting out the sensuous world of 
business, politics and pleasures of the flesh. And if both 
the hearers and the preacher always keep in mind the fact 
that the Lord is the only real Sower of the Divine truth, 
and that they are only His humble helpers, both the hear¬ 
ing and the preaching will be better and more useful. 
“Who hath ears, to hear, let him hear.” 


90 


Parables of the New Testament. 


V. 

€fic €ares among tfjc lUfjcar. 

(MATTHEW XIII. 24-30, 36-43.) 

INFERNAL EFFORTS TO OVERCOME DIVINE INFLUENCES. 


THE STRUGGLE. 

Our minds are battle-grounds between good and evil 
influences. Heaven seeks to win us to its blessings, and 
hell strives to drag us into its miseries. And the choice be¬ 
tween them lies with ourselves. 

RESEMBLANCES. 

We notice that this parable somewhat resembles that of 
“The Sower.” And, in faCt, there is a close connection be¬ 
tween all the parables in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew. 
These parables form a connected and progressive series, 
showing the progress of regeneration in the good man, and 
of the confirmation of evil in the bad man. 

DISTINCTIONS. 

In the parable of “ The Sower,” we are taught about the 
sowing of truth in men’s minds, to arouse, in them, a new 
and spiritual life. That parable treats of the different kinds 
of reception given to the Lord’s truth, by different classes of 
minds. 

And now the parable of “The Tares” exhibits the perils 
which attend the good seed of truth, even after it has been 
sown in the good soil of a loving heart. These dangers arise 



The Tares among the Wheat. 91 

from the efforts of evil spirits to counteract the work of 
the Divine Sower. 

In this parable, the trouble is not with the nature of 
the ground, but with the work of the devils. There are 
two sowers, the Lord, sowing good seed, for a harvest of 
heavenly life, and the devil, sowing bad seed, and se¬ 
cretly propagating an infernal life. 

THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 

The kingdom of heaven is the Church of the Lord, in 
the heavens and on the earth ; it is wherever the Lord is 
acknowledged as King, and loved and obeyed as such. 
It is not merely a place, but also a state, a condition, in 
which the Lord’s love and wisdom are the ruling princi¬ 
ples in men. The Lord, by His holy Word, sows the 
seeds of His truth in the minds of men. The good seed 
is the Divine Truth, from the Divine Love ; it is truth, 
carrying within it, as a germ, all heavenly good. 

THE CHILDREN. 

It is said that the good seed are the children of the 
heavenly kingdom. Personally, these are the regenerate 
men whose spiritual Father is the Lord, and whose spir¬ 
itual mother is the Church. Abstractly, the seed is the 
truth ; but men in whom the truth is, are figuratively 
called the seed, because the seed of truth makes such men 
to be what they are; the germ of a new life, producing 
fruit in those men, gives them their characteristic quality. 
The children of our mental kingdom are our affeCtions and 
thoughts. The good seed of Divine truth, controlling the 
character of the regenerate man, makes him a living form 
of that truth, a human embodiment of that principle. 

THE FIELD. 

“ The field,” where the seed is sown, “ is the world.” It 


92 Parables of the New Testament. 

is the mental world, the natural mind, which is the world’s 
part of man’s mind. The principles of good and truth are 
implanted in the interior parts of man’s mind, his spiritual 
mind ; but they must be implanted in his outward or natural 
mind, also. The Church-militant, on earth, must hold and 
govern man’s natural mind, that he may be prepared for the 
Church-triumphant, in heaven. 

The Lord sows the seed of His holy truth, not only in 
man’s spirit, but also in man’s natural mind, that it may grow 
up, and govern his outward life. The Church is in the world, 
though not of the world, in its character, not worldly in 
quality. When our Lord said, “And this gospel shall be 
preached in all the world, for a witness to all nations; and 
then shall the end come,” He meant not only that the gos¬ 
pel should reach all parts of the earth, but also that it should 
reach and influence all parts of the natural mind, that part 
of the mind which deals with the things of the world. Then 
should be “the end” of the unregenerate state, as the man 
passes into a regenerate condition. 

MEETING EVIL. 

And it is in the world, also, that we come into contact 
with evil influences. In the heaven of our inward spirit, the 
angels come to us, and operate upon us, to lead us to heav¬ 
enly things. But in the mental world of our natural minds, 
engaged with natural things, evil influences are about us, 
claiming our attention, and making their suggestions. 

And thus, in our natural minds, good and evil influences 
struggle for the mastery. The Lord sows good seed, but 
the devil sows tares. Thus, it is in the world that we form 
our chara&er, according to our life. 

SLEEPING. 

In our higher and spiritual life, we are spiritually awake. 
But when we descend into external and natural life, amid 
the things of the senses, we are, comparatively, asleep, dull 


The Tares among the Wheat. 


93 


and drowsy towards the inward life. This is the sleep indi¬ 
cated in the text. 


THE LITERAL MEANING. 

In the literal sense, the text refers to a mean a 61 of a 
cowardly and malicious man, who desired to injure another, 
and who, in the dead of night, sowed the seeds of an evil 
weed among the freshly-sown wheat of his vi< 5 lim. 

The “ tares ” mentioned in the text are not the plants com¬ 
monly called tares, for these are often intentionally sown for 
fodder: and they can be easily distinguished from wheat, at 
all stages of their growth. The word “zizania,” translated 
“tares,” does not occur in the Bible, except in this parable. 
The common judgment of investigators has decided that 
“ zizania ” is the “ zowan ” of the Arabs of Palestine, the weed 
called “darnel,” which greatly resembles wheat, especially 
in its early stages of growth. It is also called “bastard 
wheat.” 

The danger of rooting up the wheat, with the darnel, is, 
then, two-fold; a mechanical danger of dragging up the 
roots of the wheat while pulling up the darnel, and a mental 
danger of mistaking the growing wheat-plant for the darnel. 
The darnel seeds are poisonous. 

MENTAL TARES. 

These tares, or darnel, represent false principles, origin¬ 
ating in evil, and leading to evil. “The tares are the child¬ 
ren of the wicked one;” i. e ., they are outbirths of evil and 
false principles. Or, personally, they are the wicked per¬ 
sons, in whom these false principles are embodied, and who 
are forms of such false principles. 

Thorns, in the parable of “ The Sower,” represent the spon¬ 
taneous outgrowth of the unregenerate mind, the lusts of the 
flesh, the hereditary tendencies toward evil. But the tares 
are sown in the mind. They represent the false suggestions 
that are secretly insinuated into the mind, by evil spirits. 


94 


Parables of the New Testament. 


While the Lord sows truth, the devil sows falsities, even 
in the good ground. 

And the devil does his sowing while men sleep; that 
is, while they are immersed in the things of the senses, 
and paying little attention to spiritual things. These sug¬ 
gestions reach us by means of our natural tendencies to 
evil and falsity. Very naturally, we suppose these sug¬ 
gestions of evil spirits to be our own thoughts. And the 
enemy goes on his way, unsuspeCted. We do not recog¬ 
nize the origin of our sensuous thoughts. 

THE DEVIL. 

It is said that “the enemy that sowed” tares, “is the 
devil.” The devil is the personal name of the hells. Ac¬ 
curately speaking, the devil is the evil principle of self- 
love, which opposes the Lord. Every evil man, fixed and 
confirmed in an evil chara&er, is a devil, because he is a 
form of self-love, an embodiment of self-love. 

The old idea of one great personal devil, is an imper¬ 
sonation of the principle of self-love. The language of 
the Bible concerning the devil is figurative. There is no 
such devil, who was once an angel in heaven. All devils 
were once men on earth. Men make themselves to be 
devils, by perverting the life which the Lord gives them. 
Hell was made by man, not by the Lord. 

The devil of self-love is an enemy to men, and to the 
Lord. Every evil principle in our hearts, and every false 
thought in our intellects, is an enemy to our souls, and to 
our Lord. The more we turn to evils, and listen to the 
promptings of evil spirits, the more we turn away from 
the Lord, and from heaven. Nothing that any devil 
would suggest to us could be true, because ‘ ‘ he was a liar 
from the beginning, and there is no truth in him.” 

But the difficulty is to induce us to recognize the fad 
that the influences which sow wrong notions in our minds 
are our enemies. While we are asleep in our sensuous in- 


The Tares among the Wheat. 95 

difference to spiritual life, false suggestions seem to promise 
us pleasure. 


ILLUSTRATION. 

See, through the centuries of Church-history, how the 
devils have sown their tares among the Lord’s wheat, even 
in the Churches. Whenever the Church has grown popular 
and worldly, it has grown to be sleepy in spirit; and the 
devils have taken advantage of this condition, to sow here¬ 
sies, and to justify men’s sins. How often the devils have 
done their cunning work, in the name of the Church, and of 
the Lord, and then have gone their way, leaving men ignor¬ 
ant of the actual quality of their own characters ! The Lord 
has had to say to the men of the Church, in every age, as 
He had to say, even to the beloved desciples, “Ye know not 
what manner of spirit ye are of.” 

How often the devils sow their infernal seed of false per¬ 
suasions in our too-ready minds, when we know not the ori¬ 
gin of our thoughts; and when we discover their quality 
only by their results; knowing them only by their fruits. 
Our hereditary tendencies to evil attraCl the presence and 
the influence of evil spirits. 

THE BLADE SPRINGING UP. 

“ But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth 
fruit, then appeared the tares, also.” When the truth begins 
to take root in our minds, and to grow to fruit, making 
changes in our minds, then we discover, also, the tares : then 
we begin to see something of the character of the things 
which the evil spirits have suggested to us. As the truth 
begins to affeCt our will, we see that opposite things, things 
of selfish and sinful life, have been sown in our natural minds. 
We knew these things were in our minds, before, but we did 
not know their real character. 


9 6 


Parables of the New Testament. 


DISCOVERING THE TARES. 

“ Then appeared the tares, also i. e ., then it appeared 
that they were tares. Before that time, we supposed they 
were wheat. As the tares grow among the wheat, at first 
they appear alike; but, the more fully each is developed, the 
more their difference is seen. In their fruit they are most 
fully distinguished; “By their fruits ye shall know them.” 

We are best able to discover the quality of our own evils 
and falses, by the growth of good and truth, in our own 
minds; for these reveal the opposite character of the evils 
and falses. As we grow to be better, our evils are shown to 
be worse. A bad man will not give up evil habits, except 
in the outward appearance, and from policy. But the better 
a man becomes, the more he feels a repugnance towards his 
own bad habits. 

As the wheat matures and shows its charadier, the tares 
show their different charadfer. Until we are sufficiently in¬ 
terested in the truth to love it, and to live by it, its influence 
is not strong enough to reveal to us the real chara6ter of our 
mental “tares.” Only from the love of good, can evil be 
thoroughly distinguished. 

THE HOUSEHOLDER. 

But when the servants of the householder discover the 
tares, they ask, “ Didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? 
Whence, then, hath it tares?” In the supreme sense, the 
Householder is the Lord, who holds our inward house, our 
mind, in His keeping. He is called, also, the Son of Man, 
or the Divine Truth. So, in another sense, the householder 
is the Divine Truth, which holds our inward house, our 
mind, under its influence. 

THE SERVANTS. 

The servants, who serve the householder, are the 
knowledges, the teachings which we know, and which 



The Tares among the Wheat. 


97 


serve our mind. These knowledges of truth discover the 
character of the false suggestions which have also taken 
root in our natural minds. 

As we grow to appreciate, more and more, the char¬ 
acter of the truths which the Lord has taught us in His 
holy Word, the more we discover that certain other things 
are in our natural mind, suggesting an evil life. And we 
are surprised. For we know that the Lord sowed good 
seed in His held, in our mind. “Whence, then, hath it 
tares?” Why should these evil and false things come up, 
in our minds, to trouble us? We are ready, we think, 
to uproot these evils and falses. 

So we go to the Lord, in His Word, and to the Divine 
Truth, as it is in our inward minds ; and we ask about the 
state of our minds. We do not doubt our ability, and 
our entire willingness, to put away all our evil and false 
things. And our Lord, by His truth, teaches us that 
these unregenerate things, which begin to show themselves 
in our minds, are the work of our spiritual enemy, the 
devil of self-love, which is not yet really and fully con¬ 
quered, and which attracts the self-love of evil spirits 
mentally to associate with us. 

Our inquiry on the subjedl is induced by the Lord, 
Himself, so that we may understand our own human na¬ 
ture, and so that we may more fully acknowledge the 
Lord as our Adviser and our Master. 

ILLUSTRATION. 

The moment a man, from natural self-love, begins to 
regard as good, anything that is separated from the Lord, 
then evil is created, in the man’s mind. For evil is the 
perversion of good; it is good separated from its Divine 
Source, and its quality thus changed to the opposite; as 
blood, the medium of physical life, in the body, when 
separated from connexion with the heart, becomes a thing 
of danger and of death. 


98 Parables of the New Testament. 

False ideas are often very much like truths, only they 
are turned to favor self-love, instead of leading to the 
Lord. And, in such cases, the man cannot put away 
such falses, until he reforms his life, and thus restores his 
connection with heaven and the Lord; and thus comes 
into condition practically to see the difference between 
false and true things. 

GATHERING THE TARES. 

When we first catch a glimpse of the character of the 
false persuasions which are in our minds, and which we 
fear will bring forth evil fruits, we are very confident that 
we can uproot them. With the hasty zeal of novitiates 
we want to sweep away all things that are not as we think 
they should be. We would call down fire from heaven 
upon them. 

But our Lord teaches us that we are not yet in con¬ 
dition to do such work thoroughly; and that, in faCt, the 
angels are the ones to do it. 

Look, for instance, at Peter’s zeal, when he declared 
he would follow the Lord through anything, and never 
forsake Him. And see how Peter was astonished at the 
Lord’s prophecy of his denial. And yet he did deny the 
Lord, afterwards. 

When the servants asked the householder, “Wilt 
thou, then, that we go and gather them up?” he replied, 
“Nay, lest, while ye gather up the tares, ye root up, also, 
the wheat, with them. Let both grow together, until the 
harvest.’’ “The harvest is the end of the world;’’ i. e ., 
the end of worldliness, in us. The general character of 
the mind keeps pace with regeneration. We cannot put 
away evil and false things, except as we outgrow them. 

Notice that the servants knew the tares to be tares; 
but the time had not come to uproot them. So, when 
we see the character of our false persuasions, we can un¬ 
derstand what they are, and what is to be done with them, 
when the right time comes. 



The Tares among the Wheat . 


99 


ILLUSTRATION. 

Take an illustration of the time of uprooting falses. 
Suppose you see that a false idea has been growing in 
your mind; and you determine to uproot it, because it 
is false. But you go to work in your own power, and 
are self-confident. Now, you think you have expelled 
the false idea. But you have dragged up, at the same 
time, your humble, growing trust in the Lord. It would 
have been better to acknowledge the false charadler of 
the falsity, and then to make an effort to outgrow it, in 
living by the opposite truth, in the name of the Lord. 

We cannot suddenly expel from our minds all ideas 
that are not stridlly true. But, by a gradual development 
of the good and true principles of our inward minds, we 
can outgrow the falses of our natural minds. 

For instance, as we grow into an intelligent knowledge 
of the internal and spiritual meaning of the Scriptures, 
we outgrow the false ideas that were formed from the 
merely literal sense. In our earlier stages of regener¬ 
ation, we are liable to make many mistakes as to what 
things are false. See, for instance, how many natural- 
minded men, in their haste to put away false notions, go 
too far, and uproot from their minds all ideas of a per¬ 
sonal God, and of the Divine charadler of Jesus Christ. 

When we learn the Lord’s truth, and love it, and live 
by it, and so form our minds in a good life, we come to 
harvest. Then the good that is in us, from the Lord, sees 
the character of the false things in the natural mind; and 
our hearts are brought into a state of complete aversion 
towards such falses. As we live ourselves into good and 
true principles, we live ourselves out of evil and false 
principles. 


SEPARATING FALSES. 

Suppose a man finds himself imaghiing that riches and 
fame are really good things, for their own sakes Now 


IOO 


Parables of the New Testament. 


he cannot put away those ideas, merely by seeing, at 
times, that they are false. But, as he grows into the love 
of the neighbor, and the love of being useful, he will out¬ 
grow the false notions suggested by a lingering worldli¬ 
ness. 

The true and the false will be fully separated in the 
harvest of confirmed goodness. Practically, we can re- 
jeCl false ideas gradually, only, and as our character 
grows in goodness. And, for this reason, the Lord 
always protects the freedom of our will; for a man cannot 
be regenerated until his will consents to the change in 
character. And to root up the tares, prematurely, would 
be to force the man’s will. 

If it were otherwise, men would rejeCt their false ideas, 
and put away their evil habits, as soon as they once dis¬ 
covered these things to be false and evil. But they do 
not do so. And, in faCt, except in their better moments, 
they even defend and excuse their false notions and their 
bad habits. 

But, as the man becomes regenerate, gradually his 
unregenerate thoughts and habits will be thawed from him, 
like icicles before the noon-day sun of spring-time. You 
cannot altogether rejeCt from your mind a falsity, until 
you rejeCt the evil inclination which delights in that falsity. 

Of course, a man must, at all times, make an effort 
to put away all things evil and false. But his success 
will depend upon how much his heart is in the work. 
And this will depend upon the state of his regeneration. 
In faCt, he can get rid of the tares, only in so far as he 
resists the enemy who sows the tares. He must shun 
evils because they are sins against God. And he cannot 
do any good, except in the degree in which he shuns 
evils, and ceases to do evil. But no man will shun evil 
because it is sin, until he has learned to love good, and 
to hate evil. As our hearts grow warm in the love of 
good, our eyes open more fully in the light of truth ; and 
we see things differently. 


The Tares among the Wheat. 


ioi 


ILLUSTRATION. 

In winter you cannot distinguish the living tree from the 
dead tree, by outward appearance; but the summer, the 
season of full development, will soon display the condition 
of the trees. So, in our minds, the light of truth, without 
the warmth of love, will make little progress in growth. 

Even in the Church, possessed of the truth, see how 
many heresies have arisen, and how many evils have been 
pra&ised. All have the same Bible; but the devils of 
self-love, and the love of rule, have sown monstrous tares 
in the Churches. 

WHY ARE TARES PERMITTED? 

It may be asked, Why does the Lord permit these 
tares to be sown? For two reasons: in the first place, 
men’s own hereditary tendencies to evil lay them open to 
suggestions of evil spirits, and incline them to hear, and 
to favor, such suggestions. And in the second place, such 
tares can, in the Divine Providence, be used for the good 
of men, as temptations, which allow men to see their own 
tendencies, and thus to put them away. Though men 
sleep, the Lord never does. “He that keepeth Israel 
shall neither slumber or sleep.” 

As men learn the truth, and seek to live by it, the 
evil spirits excite men’s natural tendencies to evil. Thus 
men discover their own real condition. And, without 
this discovery, there could not be any regeneration. 
Without truth, men would not know their evils to be 
evils. And without temptations, they would not be able 
to rejedl evils. Thus the work of the devils is, in the 
Divine Providence, turned to the good of the regenerat¬ 
ing man. 


THE ANGELS. 


The Divine Truth a< 5 ts in judgment, and expels from 


102 Parables of the New Testament. 

the man’s character all things that are opposite to his 
ruling-love and his daily life. Divine truths are the an¬ 
gels, who a 61 as the reapers of the harvest. They gath¬ 
er the wheat, the good, into heaven, as the Lord’s barn; 
and they bind the evils and falses into bundles, and burn 
them ; i.e., they set in order, or classify, the various things 
of our minds, putting every principle of regenerate life in 
its place, in heaven, and rejedling every infernal principle 
to its place in hell. 

THE FIRES OF HELL, ETC. 

The fires of hell are the evil lusts of evil hearts. ‘ ‘ All 
things that offend” are falses: “all things that do in¬ 
iquity” are evils. 

“Wailing” is the sorrow which comes from false prin¬ 
ciples. ‘ ‘ Gnashing of teeth ’ ’ is the clashing of false reason¬ 
ings from evil lusts. ‘ ‘ But the righteous shall shine as 
the sun, in the kingdom of their Father;” i.e., they shall 
be in the a6tive use and enjoyment of love and wisdom, 
the heat and the light of the spiritual sun. 

The text does not mean that the righteous shall be 
paraded before the heavens, to make a paltry show of 
themselves; but that their chara6ter shall shine with love 
and wisdom, and shall exalt the goodness and wisdom of 
the Lord. “Let your light so shine before men, that 
they may see your good works, and glorify your Father, 
who is in heaven.” 

We notice that the servants, representing our knowl¬ 
edges of truth, are not to do the work of separating the 
good from the evil, in our minds ; but that this work must 
be done by the angels ; i. e ., by truths confirmed in the 
life, truth from the heavenly side, not from the earthly 
side. 

We are placed between two kingdoms, heaven and 
hell. 

I nfluences from both kingdoms operate upon us. Seeds 


The Tares among the Wheat. 103 

from both are sown in our natural minds. As we appre¬ 
ciate the heavenly seed, we need to go on and cultivate 
it, and not to be cast down by the sight of some tares 
among our wheat. For, if we press on to the harvest of 
our good principles, our Lord will give us light and 
strength to put away the tares. 

This parable teaches us not to expedl that this earth 
will be, to us, an easy paradise, as soon as our regener¬ 
ation begins. All things that offend cannot then be 
plucked from our minds. “In the world, ye shall have 
tribulation.” We must overcome the world in ourselves. 
Then, like our Lord, we shall find the world our servant, 
not our master. 


OUR FINAL HOME. 

The God-given destiny of every man is a home in 
heaven. That home is open to us, and our place in it is 
prepared for us, by Divine Love. But whether we shall 
occupy that place, is a question which we must decide for 
ourselves, by our life on the earth. The Sower goes forth 
to sow, in our minds. He sows good seed only. He 
sows in the bright, warm daylight. 

But, at the same time, the cunning devils observe what 
the Lord is doing for us ; and stealthily, under cover of 
mental night, in times when we are spiritually asleep, en¬ 
grossed in the things of the senses, they come upon us, 
unawares, and sow in our unheeding minds, the infernal 
seeds of false and evil principles. And we have need to 
keep ourselves awake to the realities of our human life, 
that our Lord may succeed in His heavenly work within 
us ; and that the devils may fail in their infernal schemes. 
“Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.” 


io4 


Parables of the New Testament . 


VI. 

€(|c a^ustarS <£>cct>. 

(MATTHEW XIII. 31, 32.) 

THE GROWTH OF PRACTISED TRUTH. 


LIFE. 

Truth, like seed, is full of vitality. 

There is, in the universe, one self-existent life, that of 
the Creator; the only real life, the inward vitality, which 
fills and vitalizes all created things. And each truth, 
being of the Lord, and from the Lord, is inwardly filled 
with His life. Every truth contains within it the germ of 
a complete system of intelledlual life. And that system 
is developed by a process of orderly growth, like the 
growth of a seed into a tree. 

THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 

The parable teaches us of the first conscious begin¬ 
nings of our spiritual life, and their progressive develop¬ 
ment. The kingdom of heaven is the government of the 
Divine Love, by means of the Divine Wisdom. It is 
wherever the Lord is known and loved as the spiritual 
King. Our Lord, Himself, has told us where that king¬ 
dom is located. He said, “The kingdom of God is 
within you.” 

The sensuous Jews supposed the kingdom of heaven 
to be a comfortable condition of things on earth, after the 
coming of the Messiah, to exalt the Jews to a supremacy 



The Mustard Seed. 


i°5 


which they had long desired. But the kingdom of God 
is the rule of spiritual principles in the minds and lives of 
men. And men enter that kingdom, not by going to a 
certain place, but by entering into certain states of char¬ 
acter and life. Spiritually, the change from living in the 
world to living in heaven, is a change from a worldly 
character to a heavenly charadler. 

In this sense, the kingdom of heaven is the Church of 
the Lord, in the heavens; and on the earth, also, as far 
as the latter Church is composed of regenerate persons. 
This spiritual kingdom of heaven, this rule of heavenly 
principles in the human mind, “is like to a grain of mus¬ 
tard seed, ’ ’ because the growth of this kingdom of love 
and faith, in the mind of man, is like the growth of the 
seed in the earth. 


MUSTARD SEED. 

A “seed” is a truth, in which is a germ of good. The 
mustard seed is introduced into the text, because, from 
its nature and circumstances, the correspondence of the 
literal and spiritual meanings is made markedly strong. 
Mustard seed contains great heat. The heat in the seed 
represents the warmth of love, which lies within the truth, 
in our minds, when we are in earnest about the truth. 

Of course, in the beginning, that earnestness is merely 
natural, and united with many selfish desires. But, in the 
course of regeneration, we outgrow this external condition, 
and enter into spiritual earnestness. But natural earnest¬ 
ness is the only kind we have, at first; and it serves the 
purpose of urging us to do something. 

THE MAN, AND THE FIELD. 

The man, who took the mustard seed, and sowed it 
in the field, is the Lord, Jesus Christ, the Divine Man. 

The “field” in which He sows the seed of truth, is our 
natural mind. Mustard seed thus represents truth, in 



io8 Parables of the New Testament . 

to us as a little babe, in which are the undeveloped germs 
of a full manhood, “the measure of a man, that is, of an 
angel. ’ ’ 


THE BRANCHES OF THE TREE. 

It is said of this tree, that “the birds of the air come 
and lodge in the branches thereof.” The branches of the 
tree, like the arms of the human body, are the extrem¬ 
ities. And they represent the ultimates, the externals, 
the things nearest the surface, the outer part of the mind. 
Truth, in its most interior aspe6f, is wisdom, which is 
truth loved and pradlised. In its outmost degree, it is 
knowledge of fa< 5 ts, or science. 

In the New-Church, these knowledges of fadls, in the 
memory, are called scientifics, things known. These are 
in the extremities of the man’s mind, the memory. 

THE BIRDS. 

The birds represent the intelledlual things of our na¬ 
ture, the thoughts, that fly through our minds. In the 
regenerating man, as he grows in the love and pradfice 
of truth, the truth, like a tree, branches out, in his mind, 
until his mental birds, his rational thoughts, find a lodg¬ 
ing-place in the known fa6Is stored in his memory. 

Every such fa6t is then filled with life; for the living 
things of the spiritual truth find a resting-place in the 
things of the memory, which branch out, far and wide, 
through all departments of life. 

LODGING-PLACES. 

And this is, indeed, a blessed condition, when the 
principles of our spiritual thought can come out, and 
make one with the fa< 5 ls of outward life ; when the inward 
world of the spirit becomes the recognized life and soul 


The Mustard Seed. 


109 


of all fads and circumstances, in all the branching de¬ 
tails of our outward life. 

Then, in our minds, the inward spirit of the Word of 
our Lord finds a lodging-place in the fads of its letter; 
and the spirit and the letter make one, like the soul and 
the body of a man. This is, indeed, a gracious promise, 
as a result of the growth of the truth of God’s Word, 
in the good ground of a sincere heart. 

In such a life, the literal sense of the Bible opens it¬ 
self, to exhibit its indwelling spirit of Divine Truth. We 
“look through nature, up to nature’s God.” And even 
every little fad known in our memory, every extreme 
branch of the great tree of living truth, is easily traced 
upward and inward, until we see its spiritual counterpart 
and correspondent, in the living birds of spiritual 
thoughts, lodged in its branches. 

In this exalted state of mental life, all the details of 
the physical creation, sing, in happy chorus, the glad 
praises of their glorious Creator. Material nature then 
becomes but the mirror of the spiritual world, refleding 
its higher life, as embodied in the grosser things of earth. 

Thus, as we progress in regeneration, every thing that 
we know becomes a matter of pradical life. All the life- 
lessons taught us in childhood, and stored in the memory, 
become of adual use to us, as we take them up, and fill 
them with spiritual life. They are bodies, only; but now 
they are living bodies, moved by the living spirit within. 

BREEDING-PLACES. 

And, as the branches of the trees afford not only a 
lodging-place, but also a breeding-place, for the birds, so 
the knowledges in our memory serve to multiply our 
thoughts, by affording opportunities for further thought. 

Thus, amid all the discouraging circumstances of our 
struggling life, this parable beams upon us, like a ray of 
heavenly sunshine, teaching us, that vital truth, once 


iio Parables of the New Testament . 

taking deep root in our minds, and filled with the love 
of good, grows and flourishes, and branches out in the 
mind, till it becomes like a noble tree, full of vigorous 
and varied life. 

Eminently should it be so, in the Lord’s New-Church ; 
because her do6frines are arranged in a rational system, 
all related and connected, branching out in all dire6tions, 
from interior to exterior, from mind to matter, from heaven 
to earth. Her scientifics, or fadts of life, being numerous, 
and rationally seen, afford, to the mental birds of spiritual 
thought, both lodging-places and breeding-places. 

Truly, in the New-Church, “Yea, the sparrow hath 
found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where 
she may lay her young; even Thine altars, O Jehovah of 
hosts, my King and my God.” For, in the New-Church, 
every fadt of our life should be a means of usefulness, and 
of spiritual life ; for even the ‘ ‘ leaves of the tree were for 
the healing of the nations.” 

To the regenerate man, the truth of the Lord is a tree 
of life, in the midst of the heavenly garden of his mind. 

‘ ‘ Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of 
the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sit- 
teth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the 
law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day 
and night. And he shall be like a tree, planted by the 
rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season: 
his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth 
shall prosper.” 


* TRUTHS PROLIFIC. 

We obtain a very clear idea of the vitality of truth, 
when it is compared to a seed. The Lord said, “The 
seed is the Word.” Seeds, though small, are very pro¬ 
lific. A very small seed may grow to be a very large tree. 
And this tree will produce more seeds, until the produce 
of one seed results in an orchard, or a forest. And seeds 


The Mustard Seed . 


in 


from these trees are carried elsewhere, and produce other 
orchards. 

Such is every seed of truth in the Word of the Lord ; 
it carries, within it, the vitality of heaven. It is wonder¬ 
fully prolific. One truth, sincerely loved and practised, 
becomes, like the seed, the beginning of a tree, and of a 
perpetual succession of trees. Such is the wisdom of the 
angels, from the truths of the Word, as mental seeds and 
trees, increasing in growth, and multiplying in number, 
through .eternity. And as the angels grow wiser, they 
see that there is no limit to wisdom ; and that they, them¬ 
selves, are but in the outer court of wisdom, and that 
they can never attain the Divine Wisdom, which trans¬ 
cends all finite faculties. 

The truths of the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments, 
are mental seeds of the greatest vitality; for they are 
laws of life, in the letter as well as in the spirit. They 
are adapted to all degrees and phases of human life. In 
each degree, the man has but to live by the Command¬ 
ments, and he will find them to be most prolific of heav¬ 
enly life. 


THE CHURCH. 

As it is with the truth, so is it with the Church ; it 
begins as a small seed, and branches out into a great 
growth. To the gaze of the world, the homeless Jesus, 
teaching a strange do6Irine in Jerusalem, and in the vil¬ 
lages of Palestine, and then meeting an ignominious 
death, deserted by His mere handful of followers, seemed 
very unlikely to be doing a work of any importance. 
And yet Christianity is now the religion of the leading 
nations of the world. The disciples, themselves, had very 
little comprehension of the vitality of Christianity. 

So the New-Church began in small things. A learned 
and excellent man declared himself called to a spiritual 
mission; and he wrote numerous books of theology, in 


112 Par'ables of the New Testament. 

the Latin language. Over a hundred years have passed 
by, and yet the believers in these writings are not numer¬ 
ous. It is, with the New-Church, the day of small be¬ 
ginnings. But the truth, having the vitality of living 
seed, will yet extend its branches far and wide. 

THE WORLD. 

The world is not yet ready to adopt the truths of the 
New-Church. But, in the minds that are now ready, 
those truths will grow to be noble trees. For, since the 
last judgment, the conditions for growth are better, and 
the hindrances are fewer. 

The world still sees nothing beyond natural goodness. 
In fa<5t, the world seeks to make everything, even religion, 
cater to the tastes of the world. But the New-Church 
reverses the idea, and makes the earth serve as the foot¬ 
stool to heaven. The world’s purpose is pleasure; but 
the end sought by the New-Church is use, spiritual and 
natural. 


SMALL BEGINNINGS. 

The parable teaches us not to despise small beginnings. 
We cannot foresee all that will result from little things, 
either in good or in evil. It is the part of wisdom to en¬ 
courage and develop all good, true and useful things, and 
to discourage all evil, false and injurious things. “For a 
good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and a corrupt tree 
bringeth forth evil fruit.” The things which are in the 
angel, in fulness of life, were in him as a man on earth, 
as seeds. And these things are in the angel, now, as 
fruitful trees, because as a man, he encouraged the growth 
of the seeds, as beginnings of spiritual life. While they 
were men on earth, the angels did not have the fulness 
of spiritual life which they have now, in the spiritual 
world; but they never would have been angels, and never 


The Mustard Seed. 


JI 3 

would have had their present experience, if they had not, 
while men on earth, done the work of repentance and 
reformation, by shunning evils, as sins. Any good work, 
begun, and sincerely maintained, will come to great re¬ 
sults. 

And there is, to us, in this, a lesson on the negative 
side. We are often tempted to allow some of our evils 
to run on, because they are so small, and apparently un¬ 
important. But this is a cunning suggestion of evil 
spirits. Good and evil are not so much questions of 
quantity, as of quality. Anything that we rationally see 
to be wrong, is important enough to be made a subje6l 
of self-denial. And, in doing this, we are to be careful 
to judge of the quality of a thing, not by the world’s 
standard, but by the standard of the Lord’s truth, as 
taught in His Word, and in His Church. 

THE LAW OF GROWTH. 

The seed grows to be a tree, not by chance, but by a 
law implanted in its own nature, by the Lord. The germ 
of the perfedl tree is in the seed. Circumstances do not 
make the germ, but only afford it oportunities. So, we 
must have the germ of goodness, or love of the truth, or 
no circumstances can ever develop us into angels. We 
have no reason to expert to attain any spiritual good 
which we have not yet begun to live upon. But, having 
adlually made an honest beginning in spiritual life, mak¬ 
ing a sincere affort to shun evils as sins, we have good 
reason to expedf great results, as long as we pradtically 
maintain our principles. 

We do not, in this world, find the full growth of re¬ 
generation. But the seeds must have begun to grow, 
here. And then, in the next world, we shall find these 
little seeds growing to be great trees, in our greater ca¬ 
pacities. If we are shunning evils, we are growing in 
goodness, and our growth in goodness is exactly accord- 


114 Parables of the New Testament. 

ing to our growth out of evil. When the rich young 
man asked Jesus what good thing he should do, to in¬ 
herit eternal life, the Lord replied, “Keep the command¬ 
ments. ’ ’ 


THE CERTAINTY OF GROWTH. 

Watch the little seed, as it grows. It has vitality in 
it. The whole force of the kingdom of heaven is in that 
little seed; in ’fad:, the whole power of the Lord is with¬ 
in it, making it grow. Its destiny is determined; the 
law of its life is operating; and the result will come. All 
it needs is the opportunity to grow. 

So is it, in our minds, with the seed of truth. The 
Lord is in it. All the forces of the heavens are pressing 
into it. Only let us afford it the opportunity and the con¬ 
ditions, and the result is sure. And the conditions that 
it demands, are that we shun evils, as sins, and do good, 
in the love of the Lord and of the neighbor. 

In spiritual life, it is not so much matter what we come 
from , as what we come into . We are all naturally in 
evil; but we can grow out of evil, by repentance, reform¬ 
ation and regeneration. 

QUANTITY AND QUALITY. 

“A little that a righteous man hath is better than the 
riches of many wicked;” for even the beginnings of 
spiritual life are better than the fulness of sensuous life. 
“I would rather be a door-keeper in the house of my 
God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.” “The 
Lord loveth the gates of Zion, more than all the dwellings 
of Jacob.” By the “little that a righteous man hath,” 
the Lord saves him. Therefore, if we look well to the 
quality of our life, our Lord will see to its quantity. For 
goodness is the ground in which wisdom grows. 


The Leaven . 


115 


VII. 

€ljc llcatocn. 

(MATTHEW XIII. 33.) 

THE USES OF SUBTLE TEMPTATIONS 


TRIALS. 

Progress in spiritual life comes by means of temptations. 
Trials are the tests of chara&er, by which the regenerating 
man is confirmed and strengthened in goodness and truth, 
and, at the same time, enabled to resist and put away the 
evil and false tendencies of his natural mind. 

THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 

“The kingdom of heaven” is the mental kingdom in 
which the Divine Love and Wisdom are the ruling principles 
in the minds and lives of men : it is an inward and spiritual 
kingdom. (For further explanation of the term “the king¬ 
dom of heaven,” see page 104.) But the truths of “the 
kingdom” do not grow uninterruptedly, even in sincere 
minds. Evil influences have many methods of attack. 

DISTINCTIONS. 

The parable of “The Sower ” displays the differences in 
human receptivity of Divine influences. There, the influence 
of evil is to keep men opposed, or indifferent, to truth, or in 
a merely superficial attachment to it. The parable of “ The 
Tares” exhibits the work of evil influences, in sowing false 
ideas among the truths, in our minds. But the parable of 



n6 Parables of the New Testament. 

“ The Leaven ” discloses a method of attack even more subtle, 
in which the cunning devils injed their false suggestions into 
the very things which we regard as good and true; thus, 
unconsciously to ourselves, contaminating the quality of our 
accepted truths. And the difficulty lies in our discovery of 
the contamination. “ For, if the light that is in thee be dark¬ 
ness, how great is that darkness !” As our inward disposition 
to love, and to do, the truth, seeks to come out into our nat¬ 
ural mind, to form our feelings and thoughts, and to control 
our adtual condudl, our evil tendencies are aroused; and 
they contaminate our truth. 

ILLUSTRATION. 

Take, for instance, our inclination to hasty temper. In¬ 
wardly, we maybe trying to be regenerated. We may learn 
the truth and understand it. We may see that amiability is 
a Christian duty, and that hasty-tempered addon is rude, 
selfish and sinful. But, when an occasion arises to try our 
temper, while we still know, theoretically, that a bad temper 
should not be indulged, yet the old inclination to be offended, 
and to retaliate, is secretly aroused, to pervert our idea of the 
truth, by giving it wrong applications. Then a combat arises 
between the inward principle of good and the natural self¬ 
ishness of temper. 

This combat is a temptation, by spiritual fermentation, 
because our good is adulterated with evil tendencies, and our 
truth is perverted by false suggestions. For instance; we 
may be induced to think that we ought to retaliate, in the 
case before us, in order to show the wrong-doer his own con¬ 
dition. And while we think we are carrying out the truth, 
for the truth’s sake, we are actually indulging our own self- 
love. 

Now, if, in the light of the Ten Commandments, we ex¬ 
amine the quality of our feelings and thoughts, we shall see 
their contamination. And then, if we keep control over our 
tongues and our hands, and if we determine to do the Lord’s 



The Leaven . 


117 

will, the fire of His love will flow into our minds, and cast 
out the leaven of falsity. Then the evil and false things, 
which we have resisted, will be separated from us, more and 
more; and the quality of the good that we have loved and 
practised, will be confirmed in us. The clearer truth will be¬ 
come more and more a practical principle in our life, as well 
as in our thought. 

Thus, the fermentation, by causing a temptation, has re¬ 
sulted in good to us. It was induced by the promptings of 
evil spirits, who began it, in order to break down our grow¬ 
ing love of truth and good. They aroused our natural tend¬ 
encies, and thus allured us towards our destruction. 

TEMPTATIONS PERMITTED. 

The Lord permitted them to stir us up, because we could 
thus recognize our own evil tendencies, and the hells towards 
which they tend. But when the devils began alluring us, 
the Lord sent His guardian angels to us, to enable us to dis¬ 
cover the contamination; and to keep us in our good affec¬ 
tions and true thoughts; and to help us to bear the trial of 
our principles. The Lord permitted the devils to arouse us, 
because He could thus turn their work to our benefit. He 
allowed them to put leaven in our meal, because the result 
would be better bread. For we already possessed the truth, 
in whose light we could see the evil character of our tenden¬ 
cies. 


THE LEAVEN. 

Now, the operation of these temptations, in our minds, is 
like the operation of leaven, in bread-making. Naturally, 
the bread would be heavy, and it would contain impurities. 
But by leavening it, the leaven agitates and ferments the 
whole lump of dough, until the fire, which bakes the bread, 
drives out the leaven ; and it also drives out all the impurities 
of the dough, which can be carried off with the leaven. 

So, a man can not clear his mind of its tendencies to evil 


118 Parables of the New Testament. 

and falsity, without a combat between these things and his 
good and true principles. The quality of his good and truth 
must be regenerated. But, after the combat, if the truth 
conquers, false ideas will be cast out, as the leaven from the 
bread. 

The nature of leaven may be seen in the fa< 5 l that it is the 
result of decay. And, therefore, it would represent spiritual 
decay, or death. The good that comes by means of leaven 
is not from the leaven, itself, but from the operation of the 
leaven, over-ruled by the Divine Providence, for good, and 
by means of fire. Leaven represents the false principles 
which come from evil. 


MEAL. 

Wheat represents the vital good principles, in the mind, 
but which need to be brought into practical use. Grinding 
the wheat into meal, or flour, represents the mental process 
of preparing our good principles for adlual use, by rationally 
examining them, thinking upon them, etc. Meal, or flour, 
thus represents truth derived from good; good put in shape 
to be applied. And in the application, further good will be 
effected, good in a more practical phase. But for adlual use, 
the flour is to be made into bread. And bread, being partly 
man’s own work, represents pradfical good, brought out in 
his daily life, in performing uses. But, before pure good 
can come from such truth as the man holds, that truth must 
be purged of whatever impurities it may contain, because of 
false notions in the man’s mind. So, when the man begins 
to carry out his truth, he will find his natural and hereditary 
evil tendencies aroused, to contaminate the truth. 

In the dough, the impurities are willing to join themselves 
to what is good, because then they can corrupt this good: 
but the pure things, and those longing for greater purity, do 
not desire to join themselves to the impurities. So a com¬ 
bat arises, till the impurities are cast out. So, in the mind, 
false things are willing to join themselves to truth, to taint 


The Leaven. 


119 

its quality. But the truth, in a regenerating mind, is not 
willing to be corrupted. 

THE WOMAN. 

The leaven, in the text, was used by a woman. The 
woman represents the affe&ions ; here, ihe natural affe&ion, 
in an unregenerate state. She hides the leaven in the meal. 
Falses are insinuated into our minds, and hidden there, in 
our truths, by evil spirits. But they do this by means of 
our natural affetffion for things of self and the world. In the 
same w r ay, in the allegory of Eden, the serpent used Eve to 
tempt Adam, the natural affedtion to reach the rational 
thought. 


MEASURES. 

The meal was “three measures of meal.” Measures are 
vessels, for ascertaining quantities. All hollow vessels, to 
contain things, represent doctrines, which are hollow forms, 
or vessels, to hold truth. 


THREE. 

Three, as a number, represents fulness, or completeness, 
as to truth. There are three discrete, or different, degrees 
of life, celestial, spiritual and natural. There are three divis¬ 
ions of man’s body, the head, the trunk, and the extremities, 
representing the three degrees of life. So, in the man, there 
are three parts, the spirit, the adtivity, and the body. In the 
Lord, there are three parts, the Father, the Son, and the 
Holy Spirit, which are Love, Wisdom and Power, a trinity 
of principles, in one Divine Person, the Lord, Jesus Christ. 
As three means full, or complete, “three measures of meal” 
would mean a full system of doctrines of truth, truths so 
complete that we could live upon them. In the text, we are 
interested, not in the three measures, as vessels, but in their 
contents. Thus the text treats of the truths in the mind, in 
complete doctrinal system. 


118 Parables of the New Testament. 

and falsity, without a combat between these things and his 
good and true principles. The quality of his good and truth 
must be regenerated. But, after the combat, if the truth 
conquers, false ideas will be cast out, as the leaven from the 
bread. 

The nature of leaven may be seen in the fa6t that it is the 
result of decay. And, therefore, it would represent spiritual 
decay, or death. The good that comes by means of leaven 
is not from the leaven, itself, but from the operation of the 
leaven, over-ruled by the Divine Providence, for good, and 
by means of fire. Leaven represents the false principles 
which come from evil. 


MEAL. 

Wheat represents the vital good principles, in the mind, 
but which need to be brought into pra&ical use. Grinding 
the wheat into meal, or flour, represents the mental process 
of preparing our good principles for actual use, by rationally 
examining them, thinking upon them, etc. Meal, or flour, 
thus represents truth derived from good; good put in shape 
to be applied. And in the application, further good will be 
effected, good in a more practical phase. But for adlual use, 
the flour is to be made into bread. And bread, being partly 
man’s own work, represents pra6tical good, brought out in 
his daily life, in performing uses. But, before pure good 
can come from such truth as the man holds, that truth must 
be purged of whatever impurities it may contain, because of 
false notions in the man’s mind. So, when the man begins 
to carry out his truth, he will find his natural and hereditary 
evil tendencies aroused, to contaminate the truth. 

In the dough, the impurities are willing to join themselves 
to what is good, because then they can corrupt this good: 
but the pure things, and those longing for greater purity, do 
not desire to join themselves to the impurities. So a com¬ 
bat arises, till the impurities are cast out. So, in the mind, 
false things are willing to join themselves to truth, to taint 


The Leaven. 


119 

its quality. But the truth, in a regenerating mind, is not 
willing to be corrupted. 

THE WOMAN. 

The leaven, in the text, was used by a woman. The 
woman represents the affedions; here, the natural affedion, 
in an unregenerate state. She hides the leaven in the meal. 
Falses are insinuated into our minds, and hidden there, in 
our truths, by evil spirits. But they do this by means of 
our natural affedion for things of self and the world. In the 
same way, in the allegory of Eden, the serpent used Eve to 
tempt Adam, the natural affedion to reach the rational 
thought. 


MEASURES. 

The meal was “three measures of meal.” Measures are 
vessels, for ascertaining quantities. All hollow vessels, to 
contain things, represent dodrines, which are hollow forms, 
or vessels, to hold truth. 


THREE. 

Three, as a number, represents fulness, or completeness, 
as to truth. There are three discrete, or different, degrees 
of life, celestial, spiritual and natural. There are three divis¬ 
ions of man’s body, the head, the trunk, and the extremities, 
representing the three degrees of life. So, in the man, there 
are three parts, the spirit, the adivity, and the body. In the 
Lord, there are three parts, the Father, the Son, and the 
Holy Spirit, which are Love, Wisdom and Power, a trinity 
of principles, in one Divine Person, the Lord, Jesus Christ. 
As three means full, or complete, “three measures of meal” 
would mean a full system of dodrines of truth, truths so 
complete that we could live upon them. In the text, we are 
interested, not in the three measures, as vessels, but in their 
contents. Thus the text treats of the truths in the mind, in 
complete dodrinal system. 


120 


Parables of the New Testament. 


USING THE LEAVEN. 

When the mind is thus properly instructed, and equipped 
for spiritual progress, and when it makes an effort to go for¬ 
ward to a new step in spiritual life, then the evil spirits, by 
means of our natural affe<5lion, the woman, insinuate into our 
thought some natural falsity, linked with some hereditary 
tendency to evil. Then the whole mind is stirred up, by this 
injected falsity. “The whole [lump] was leavened.” 

The truthfulness of the truth is practically brought in 
question, in the mind, and the love of truth is assailed, by the 
false principle injeCted, the leaven. 

The woman “took” the leaven, from some old decayed 
dough, from a previous leavening, which represents some¬ 
thing left over, from the old, unregenerate nature, and now 
brought forward. So a combat arises, a fermentation, a 
temptation. If the truth conquers, the fire of love to the Lord 
drives out the leaven, and carries off, with it, the impurities 
by which it had a foothold in the mind; as the swine of the 
Gergesenes carried off the devils that entered into them. 

THE EXACT MEANING. 

Thus, we see that the kingdom of heaven is not like the 
leaven , itself; but the establishment of the kingdom of heaven, 
in man’s mind, by means of temptations, is like the cleansing 
of the dough, and the making of good bread, by means of 
the leaven. Dry leaven will not operate upon dry flour; but 
it needs moisture. 

Water represents natural truths. And natural truths, 
truths as seen by the natural mind, are often so erroneously 
understood, that, like water in the meal, they aid in the oper¬ 
ation of leavening. The natural mind is not able to take 
clear and genuine truths, at once; but it has to receive, at 
first, appearances of truth, which are not genuine; and these 
are used as means by which genuine truths are afterwards 
received by the mind; as, in fruits, the first and unripe juices 


The Leaven . 


I 21 


are sour, and yet these sour juices are the means of introduc¬ 
ing the sugar which sweetens the ripe juices. 

Truth is theoretical and speculative, in our minds, until 
we are brought to test its quality and our adherence to it. 

ILLUSTRATIONS. 

See, for instance, how the rich young man, who went to 
the Lord, asking what he should do to inherit everlasting 
life, felt confident that he was willing to do whatever should 
he required of him. He expe&ed to be called upon to do 
some great external a<5L But, as soon as he found that he 
was asked to practise self-denial, he declined to do the first 
thing suggested. It did not seem good, to him. 

See, too, how' self-confident Peter was, in his adherence 
to the Lord. “ Peter said unto Him, Though I should die 
with Thee, yet will I not deny Thee. Likewise, also, said all 
the disciples.” And yet, within a few hours, Peter did deny 
the Lord, three times. And he, with the other disciples, for¬ 
sook the Lord, and fled. 

We are all apt to imagine that we are as good as we 
know how to be. If we know the truth, we are apt to think 
that we shall always do it. But, “Let not him who girdeth 
on his armor boast himself as he that putteth it off.” For 
there is a combat at hand, and he cannot tell, till the fight is 
over, how he is coming out of it. He does not recognize the 
quality of his good and truth. 

But, when we are actually tried and tested, and have ac¬ 
knowledged the contaminated quality of our good and truth, 
then the truth we have fought for, and lived for, we value as 
our life. It becomes a part of our life. And “ all that a man 
hath will he give for his life;” not merely his outward exist¬ 
ence, but especially his mental life, of afifedfion and thought. 
So, as we uphold our good principles, and allow our Lord 
to regenerate their quality, against our tendencies to evil, we 
exalt our good principles, in our own esteem ; we rise to 
higher and finer qualities of good and truth ; because, more 


122 Parables of the New Testament . 

and more, we separate ourselves from our inclinations to 
evil. Then our good principles are no longer merely theo¬ 
retical, but practical; and they are not merely natural, but 
also spiritual. 

THEORY AND PRACTICE. 

Because we have placed a new truth in our memory, and 
in our understanding, and even in our natural affe6tion, it 
does not follow that we have placed that truth in our life. 
That requires another step forward. We do not always 
make good bread, even when we have good flour. If we 
have merely taken the new truth into our thought, and are 
externally delighted with it; if it has never, as yet, cost us 
any struggle in our life; we may know that it is not yet as 
well-made bread, but as meal, only. And it must yet go 
through the process of leavening, that it may be purified, and 
made ready for spiritual food. 

Many persons hold very loosely their good and true 
mental possessions. But, when a temptation comes, and 
they are stirred up, in a mental fermentation, their supposed 
principles are brought out sharply, before them, and they 
are made to define their quality. 

When a man comes into the New-Church, he has an en¬ 
thusiastic delight in the new truths. He wonders why all 
persons do not at once receive these beautiful doctrines. 
But when he tries to carry out these doctrines, in his daily 
life; and when he sees how hard his own evil and false in¬ 
clinations try to hold their ground, and to justify themselves ; 
and how hard they seek to contaminate the actual quality of 
the new truths; he will cease to wonder why the whole world 
does not rush into the New-Church. 

The complete system of truths in his understanding will 
be the “three measures of meal.” But this meal is not yet 
his bread of life. It will have to go through a tremendous 
fermentation, before it can be made into “the bread of God, 
that cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the 
world.” 


The Leaven . 


123 


LEAVEN REPRESENTS HELL. 

We notice the fa<5l that, in the parable, leaven does not 
represent heaven, but hell. And yet, outside of the New- 
Church, almost all the commentators on the Scriptures re¬ 
gard the leaven as representing heaven ; and this, too, in the 
face of the acknowledged fa6t that, in all other texts, in the 
Scriptures, leaven denotes what is evil and false. 

The few of the old commentators who see that leaven 
represents hell, go to the other extreme, and interpret the 
parable to mean that heresies and evils, like leaven, will creep 
into the Christian Church, and corrupt the whole Church. 
The general idea of the commentators seems to be that 
leaven, as a symbol, is used in a general way, to represent 
an adlive but secret influence, working great results; with¬ 
out assigning any definite charadler to the leaven. 

As to this parable, outside of the New-Church, the gene¬ 
ral interpretation is, that it represents the silent power of the 
Gospel of Christ, gradually transforming the world to its own 
character, or quality. But as we have already seen, this is 
an entire misconception of the meaning of leaven. Leaven 
does not, in the text, as it does not elsewhere in the Scriptures, 
represent anything good or true. 

Though the leaven, itself, is vile, yet its operation is made 
to result beneficially. So, though false and evil things are 
vile, yet their permitted operation, during temptations, is, in 
the Divine Providence, over-ruled and turned to human good, 
in the regenerating man. 

Therefore, the common habit of speaking of anything 
good as “leavening” evil things, is erroneous. Leavening 
does not mean purifying; it means tempting, and seeking 
to corrupt. It is evil that leavens, or, rather, falsity derived 
from evil. But the Lord purifies men’s minds, by thwarting 
the leaven, and turning its influence against itself. 

THE FIRE. 

No good comes from the leaven, itself; but from the fire, 


124 Parables of the New Testament . 

which compels the leaven to defeat itself. If you leave the 
dough, with the leaven in it, the dough will soon be ruined. 
The good comes from the fire, which drives out the leaven. 
Fire represents spiritual love. 

And, in temptations, our spiritual love, filled with the 
fire of energy from heaven, so a< 5 ls upon our mind, that it 
drives out the evil and false things insinuated and suggested 
by the tempting evil spirits, and also makes them carry away, 
with them, our hereditary evil and false tendencies. For 
these, being recognized and resisted, are rejected. 

Now, if the leaven represented good and true things, then 
its a< 5 iion in leavening the dough, “ till the whole was leav¬ 
ened,” would be all that was necessary. Yet, when the whole 
mass is leavened, it is utterly unfit for food. It must yet go 
through its most important process, by means of the fire. 
Therefore, the leaven, itself, does not improve the flour, nor 
does it make bread of the flour; it spoils the flour. And 
the more it goes through the whole lump, the more it spoils 
the flour. But the more we bake the leaven out of the flour, 
the better the bread. 

In these fadls we can see that leaven cannot represent 
heaven, or the gospel of heaven. And the general belief 
that leaven does represent the gospel, is one of the superficial 
fallacies of the Old Theology, which does not penetrate to 
the centre of things. 

UNLEAVENED BREAD. 

In some of the religious feasts of the Israelites, including 
the passover, the people were commanded to use unleavened 
bread; and all leaven was strictly forbidden. Now, if leaven 
represented anything good, it would surely be what was es¬ 
pecially needed at the passover. 

But, with leaven meaning evil and falsity, the explanation 
is easy. The earlier feasts of the Jewish year represented the 
earlier stages of regeneration, when men were in faith, rather 
than in love; not yet leavened, or tempted, and not yet puri- 


The Leaven. 


125 


fied. And so they were to use no leaven, in order to repre¬ 
sent that they were in early states of reception of what the 
Lord was giving; but that they had not yet made these 
things their own, in pra&ical life, through temptation and the 
resulting purification. 

But, when they came to the feast of the “first fruits,” 
they were commanded to use leavened bread. For mental 
harvest fruits are attained through something of labor and 
temptation; after a leavening process has been undergone. 
And so the leavened bread, being purified, represented the 
more advanced state of mind, in which their good had been 
somewhat tried, and purified in quality. 

The feast of the “first fruits” represented the entrance 
into the promised land; and this was after, and through, 
some leavening of temptation. 

THE FLOUR AS GOOD, NOT EVIL. 

And, again, if leaven represents good, in the parable, 
then the flour must represent evil. And this would be against 
the whole tenor of the representative ceremonies in which 
flour was used, in the offerings to the Lord. Of course, 
there are impurities mixed with the flour, but the fine flour, 
itself, always represents truth derived from good. And, in 
the bread-making, the use of the leaven was to make the 
good flour even more pure. 

ILLUSTRATION. 

Spiritual truth is obscured, and often forgotten, in the 
Old Theology, because the leaven of the false doctrines of 
“Vicarious Atonement” and “Justification by Faith Alone,” 
has completely leavened the whole Theology, and has con¬ 
taminated its quality; and in may cases, no fire of spiritual 
love has yet driven out that leaven, to purify, and make 
wholesome, the bread of life. 

Salvation is not by faith alone, but by love, faith and obed- 


126 


Parables of the New Testament. 


ience. Goodness is not imputed to men, but imparted to 
them, when they follow the Lord in adtual life. 

The parable also affords a warning to the young, as well 
as to others, not to rush into temptations, before they are 
prepared to meet and overcome the evil influences. We 
must have the “three measures of meal,” the full teachings 
of truth, in our minds, and the fire of a pure love in our 
hearts, or we shall not know the quality of our affedtions 
and thoughts; and the leaven will not be expelled, and we 
shall not have the pure bread of life. 

We need not seek temptations; they will come, soon 
enough, and as soon as we are able to bear them. Let our 
prayer be, “ Lead us, not into temptation,” which we are not 
yet able to bear; but, when we are being tempted, “ deliver 
us from the evil.” 


The Hidden Treasure. 


27 


VIII. 

Cfjc ni&tiru Creature. 

(MATTHEW XIII. 44.) 

THE DISCOVERY OF SPIRITUAL TRUTH. 


SUMMARY. 

Spiritual life is a heavenly joy to regenerate men. In 
the inwardly open soul, the pleasures of the senses sink to 
their proper place, as mere externals. 

The kingdom of heaven is the mental kingdom in which 
the Divine Truth rules the mind and life. 

THE LITERAL SENSE. 

A treasure is something known and esteemed as valua¬ 
ble. The literal sense of the parable refers to a custom that 
was common in ancient times, and in Oriental countries. In 
such countries, there were no banks, or other places to de¬ 
posit money. A very small proportion of the wealth of the 
country could find any investment in trade. Robbers were 
numerous. Rulers were despotic, and on very slight pretext, 
ready to seize upon the wealth of the people. Wars might, 
at any time, change the rulers of the land, and unsettle the 
conditions of society. For these reasons, treasures were not 
safe, in the known possession of their owner. 

Hence it became common to bury treasures in the earth, 
for safe keeping. And very often, from sudden death, or 
from political changes, and absence of the owner, his secret 
died with him; and his treasure remained hidden, until, in 
the course of events, the addon of the elements, or the work 



128 


Parables of the New Testament. 


of some laborer, exposed the hidden treasure. The Jewish 
law declared the treasure to be the property of the owner of 
the ground in which it was found. 

These fa6ts explain the literal sense of the parable. They 
show why the finder of the treasure had to purchase the 
field. For his sudden possession of unusual riches would 
have led to inquiry, and would have revealed the secret of 
his fortune. 


THE MORALITY OF THE FINDER. 

The parable presents a representative pi6lure of human 
life. The Lord does not mean to commend the methods of 
the finder of the treasure, nor to justify the hiding of the 
fa< 5 Is from the owner of the field, any more than He justified 
the shrewdness of the unjust steward, in another parable. 
We are not necessarily led to discuss the morality of these 
supposed a6ts; we are to take the lesson which the parable 
representatively teaches. 

SPIRITUAL TREASURES. 

The treasure represents something valuable and desirable 
for spiritual life; it is spiritual truth, which, being pra6fised, 
leads to heavenly good. It is the wisdom of the Divine 
Word, known and appreciated. 

THE FIELD. 

The field in which the treasure was hidden, is the Church, 
the Church in man, the teachings and principles of the Di¬ 
vine Word, in the Church; not the mere organization, or 
society. We may say that the field is the Church, or the 
Word, because the Word, in the Church, constitutes the 
Church; for it is the Lord’s presence in the Church. 

In the parable, the field was seen to be valuable, when 
the hidden treasure was discovered in it. So is it with the 
Church, in our minds; it is precious to us, when we see 


The Hidden Treasure. 


129 


what it contains; when we see the truths of heavenly life 
that have long been hidden from our sensuous gaze. 

Those who do not see the truths of spiritual life in the 
principles of the Church, naturally regard the doctrines of 
the Church as a common field, of no especial value. The 
treasure of the Church is the Divine Truth of the Lord, 
especially in the internal, spiritual sense of the Scriptures. 
And the man who lives as a true member of the New- 
Church, will see and appreciate the spiritual truths of the 
Lord’s Word. And so fully will he rejoice in these truths, 
that he will sell all that he mentally has, all his own notions 
of the senses, in order to enter into the life of these interior 
truths, and thus into full possession of them. 

THE TREASURE HIDDEN. 

In the Church, the treasure is hidden in the field, be¬ 
cause the spiritual and interior truth is hidden in the letter 
of the Scriptures, under all the literal history, prophecy, 
Psalm and Gospel. Parables and symbols are given, in 
which the spirit of truth lies hidden, to protedl it from 
profanation. 

In the Scriptures, there is, throughout, from Genesis to 
Revelation, one grandest of themes, hidden under the vari¬ 
ous teachings of the letter; and this theme is the kingdom 
of heaven and its Divine King. All things in the whole 
Scriptures, in the supreme sense, teach of the Lord, Jesus 
Christ, in His Divine Humanity, the one, only God, in one 
Divine Person; and of His spiritual kingdom, set up in the 
hearts and lives of regenerate men. 

The kingdom of heaven is, indeed, “a treasure hid in a 
fieldit is spiritual truth and life, hid in the field of the 
Church, in the letter of the Scriptures. And a man finds 
this hidden treasure when he sees the spiritual sense of the 
Lord’s Word, shining as the light, exposed to his view in 
the literal sense of the Bible. He sees that this inward and 
spiritual sense of the Scripture opens to him the door of 


130 Parables of the New Testament. 

the kingdom of heaven, and displays what is within the 
heavens. 


HIDING THE TREASURE, AGAIN. 

When the finder discovered the treasure, he hid it, again, 
until he should buy the field in which he found it. And 
there is a sense in which the finder of spiritual treasure hides 
it, until he can make it his own. The literal finder is in dan¬ 
ger of loss by others learning his secret, and plotting against 
him. And so the finder of spiritual treasure is in danger of 
counter-plots. 

He made this discovery, in his clearer and higher states 
of thought, when he was more than usually open to Di¬ 
vine influences. But, in the pradlical walk of life, he will 
have to return to his external states and works. And there 
is danger that his natural and sensuous mind will seek to 
prevent him from coming into full possession of his newly- 
found treasure. 

For the discovery of new truth always leads the sincere 
man to review his life, in the new light. But his natural and 
sensuous mind does not feel willing to be criticised and set 
in order. And so every new truth introduced into the mind, 
finds opposition on the part of the old ways of feeling, think¬ 
ing, and doing. Thus the man who finds the treasure of 
spiritual truth, in the revealed spiritual sense of the Script¬ 
ures, does not submit it to the opposition and the jeers of his 
sensuous thought; he does not let it lie in the open field, to 
be carried off by the first passer-by. 

He hides the new treasure in his interior mind, in the 
profound depths of his mind, where it will be safe from the 
mental dogs and swine, and thieves, that roam through the 
unregenerate natural mind. He sees that “the kingdom of 
heaven is within ” him, and that he must store up the great 
treasure in his inward spirit, until he can fully possess it as 
his own. Then, in gratitude to the Lord, he exclaims, “ Thy 
Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against 
Thee.” 


The Hidden Treasure . 


131 

He first secures the treasure of spiritual truth in his in¬ 
ward mind, in his heart, so that he may thence bring it 
out into addon, in his external life. For he is to come 
into full possession of his treasure, only by overcoming 
the evil tendencies of his natural mind ; by selling, or part¬ 
ing with, all that he has of his own selfish life, and buying, 
or procuring, what the Lord has to give him. 

REJOICING. 

When the man finds the treasure, he rejoices. Joy is 
the delight which comes from his love of the truth. His 
inward affedtion for good and truth is aroused, on account 
of what he has found in the Word of the Lord, and in the 
teachings of the Church, from the Word. He gives up 
all his former possessions, his old feelings and thoughts, 
that he may secure the greatest treasure. He denies him¬ 
self, and follows the Lord. He heeds the words of the 
Lord, “These things have I spoken unto you, that My 
j'oy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” 
Then he goes his way, to buy the field. 

GOING. 

So, the finder of spiritual truth must “go” to buy the 
field, the principles of the Church, and the letter of the 
Word. He must go, because going, or making progress, 
or walking, means living, or doing according to the truth. 
The man must “go” the way of the Lord’s commandments ; 
for they are the way of life. When we see the great value 
of spiritual truth, our appreciation of that value does not 
make the treasure ours. We must go to the owner of the 
field, and acknowledge his ownership, and buy the field at 
his price. 


THE OWNER. 


The owner is the Lord, for all truth is His. The letter of 


132 Parables of the New Testament. 

the Word is His. And, when we see the spiritual truths 
of the Word, we must acknowledge them to be the Lord’s. 
If we regard them as our own, by discovery, through our 
own intelligence, we steal them from the rightful owner. But, 
as we see the treasure in the field, the spiritual truth lying 
within the literal truths of the Word of God, we must ac¬ 
knowledge the Lord’s ownership of the truth. And when 
we acknowledge the Word to be the Lord’s, we thereby ac¬ 
knowledge all things in the Word to be His. 

BUYING THE FIELD. 

If we buy the field, we shall have the treasure; not by 
any secret trickery, but by open right; for, to buy the field, 
or the truth of the letter, is to acknowledge it as the Lord’s, 
and to make it ours by pra&ice, by living according to it. 
And when we do our part of the work of regeneration, by 
living according to the Lord’s truth, by keeping His com¬ 
mandments, we do all that we can do; and the Lord then 
gives us the heavenly treasure of the spiritual truth, to which 
our good life has opened us. As Jesus said, “He that is 
washed, hath no need, save to wash his feet i. e ., to keep 
his external life clean and pure, according to the command¬ 
ments ; and then his internal life will find a suitable external 
in his daily conduct. 

Thus, in the spiritual meaning of this parable, the finder 
did not conceal anything from the owner He bought all 
that he could buy. And the proof of his readiness to do his 
part was seen in the fa6I that he “sold all that he had.” 

SELLING ALL. 

To sell all that he had, was to give up all his self-love, 
his self-intelligence, and his self-righteousness, that he might 
come into possession of heavenly love, spiritual intelligence, 
and heavenly righteousness. He changed the object of his 
affe< 5 fions from himself to the Lord. He sold away his evils, 


The Hidden Treasure. 


133 


by self-denial, in resisting evil inclinations. He bought 
good, by making it his own, by practice. 

We cannot make the Lord’s treasures to be ours, except 
at the expense of giving up our selfish life, in exchange for 
them. When we accept our Lord’s will as our will, and live 
as He commands us to live, He can fill us with His spiritual 
blessings. 

But, if we know these treasures to be in the Lord’s 
Word, but do not use the truth to live upon, we are as a 
man who knows where treasure is hidden, but who does not 
own the field, and cannot possess the treasure. 

WHAT MUST BE SOLD. 

It is not necessary for a man to give up his natural wealth, 
either in physical or mental riches; but it is necessary for him 
to give up holding them as his own, selfishly, and to learn to 
use them as the Lord’s. And a man comes into full posses¬ 
sion of spiritual treasure, just in proportion as he sells all 
that he has, or completely takes up his cross, and denies him¬ 
self. If he secretly tries to keep something of his selfishness, 
the purchase will fall through. We cannot economize in 
journeying to heaven. Only as we put away the evil life of 
hell can the pure life of heaven flow in, to bless us. We 
shall procure all of heaven that we spiritually pay for, and no 
more. We cannot make a shrewd bargain with the Lord. 
The more unreservedly we receive heaven, the more fully it 
will come to us. 

Those who freely acknowledge the Lord, see the interior 
truths of the Word; and then they give up all their unre¬ 
generate self-hood, that they may be regenerated. And 
the more their regeneration progresses, the more clearly 
they will see the interior truths of the Word, which seem 
obscure to the natural mind. And as we put away evils, we 
come into the joy of such good as is opposite to the evils 
which we shun. And as we resolutely put away an evil, as 
a sin, the more clearly we see the sinfulness of our evil. 


134 


Parables of the New Testament. 


As we see glimpses of the beauty of holiness, the glory 
of the regenerate life, we must put down our anger, malice, 
envy, deceit, meanness, and all other forms of self-love; and 
then we shall own the treasure of spiritual truth, in the love, 
the patience, the amiability, the consideration for others, the 
desire for spirituality of character, and all other virtues, into 
which we live ourselves. 

THE SPIRITUAL BLOOD OF THE LORD. 

As New-Churchmen, we clearly understand that we can¬ 
not buy heaven by the physical blood of the Lord, shed 
upon Calvary. The do6lrine of the “Vicarious Atonement” 
is one of the ideas based on external and sensuous views of 
the letter of the Scriptures. And when we see the cloud of 
the letter open, and the flood of light come forth from the 
inward and spiritual sense, we find a priceless treasure, hid¬ 
den in the field of the letter. 

And, for joy, we go and sell, or put away, all our old 
ideas of a “Vicarious Atonement,” that we may enter fully 
into the grand and glorious truths, that God is infinite Love ; 
that men condemn themselves, by forsaking the Lord; and 
that the Lord saves all who can be saved; i. e., who are 
willing to return to Him, by loving Him above all things, and 
loving their neighbors as themselves; and by living accord¬ 
ing to His commandments. “ He that hath My command¬ 
ments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me.” 

The blood of the Lord, spiritually means the Divine 
Truth of the Lord, which saves us from evil, as we love it, 
and learn it, and do it. 

REGENERATION GRADUAL. 

And we cannot instantly buy the field of the Church, or 
of the Word. We buy it gradually: we pay for it in instal¬ 
ments. Every evil feeling rejected from our life, makes a 
payment towards possession of our treasure. For as we sell 
out, or put away, our evils, we enter into good. 


The Hidden Treasure. 


*35 


But it does not follow, because a man cannot instantly 
pay in full for the treasure, that he must wait until he be¬ 
comes fully good, before he can begin to take possession of 
the spiritual life of the Church. The external organization 
of the Church is for the purpose of aiding men to learn what 
they need to know of spiritual things, and to live as they 
ought to live. 

And yet we must not imagine that the a<T of uniting with 
the church organizations will do the work of regeneration. 

We know where the truth is; we have come upon the 
hidden treasure; but it is not yet ours. We must buy the 
field ; we must make the letter of the Word ours, by making 
the truth our rule of daily life; i. e ., by giving up all things in 
ourselves that are opposed to the truth; and by keeping the 
commandments. This we do, by shunning evil, and doing- 
good, in the Lord’s name, paying a little every day, as the 
day brings us opportunity. And “ he that endureth to the 
end shall be saved.” 


RESISTING EVILS. 

Evils are clannish ; they cling together. But, as we truly 
loosen our affe< 5 fions from any one evil, we loosen them 
from all evils; for we put away our disposition to cherish 
evil. 

And, as we do this, we are, to the same extent, lifted out 
of, and above, the influence of all evils. All evils are forms 
of self-love. And, if we truly resist any evil, we resist our 
self-love, which is the root of all evils. And so if we sin¬ 
cerely shun evil in any form, we shall be willing to resist it 
in any other known form. 

THE STATE OF CHRISTENDOM. 

In the present state of Christendom, the internal, spirit¬ 
ual sense of the Lord’s Word is a hidden treasure. Few 
know of its existence; and few would appreciate it as a 


136 Parables of the New Testament. 

treasure, if they should see it in the dodlrines of the New- 
Church. 

See how the majority of men, even in the churches, re¬ 
gard the Old Testament, as a book “out-dated, like last 
year’s almanac,” and of no practical use to the present age. 

And how are men to find the inward treasure of the 
Lord’s Word? It does not lie on the surface, where every 
careless passer-by may see it. 

CULTIVATING THE FIELD. 

The Greek word for field, in the parable, means a culti¬ 
vated field. The man who found the hidden treasure was 
working in the field, doing some manual labor, for the 
owner of the field. 

And, spiritually, it is when we are at work, in the Church- 
truths, in the letter of the Word, seeking to do some good, 
to perform some use with the literal truth, that the truth 
opens to us, and displays its inward contents, its spiritual 
treasure. “If thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy 
voice for understanding; if thou seekest her as silver, and 
searchest for her as for hid treasures; then shalt thou un¬ 
derstand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of 
God.” 

In the parable, the man was not knowingly seeking the 
hidden treasure; but he was doing useful work, for proper 
compensation. And the treasure that came to him was 
greater than he expedfed. So is it in our life; if we do our 
outward duties patiently, and in the love of being useful, 
we shall come upon greater treasures than we expected. 
And we shall find joy in the treasure. And it will enrich us: 
and it will change the character of our subsequent life. 

PUTTING AWAY EVILS. 

Few of us know how much we have, in our natural 
minds, that we ought to sell out, or put away. Because we 


The Hidden Treasure . 


137 


do not break out into grievous forms of sin, we may forget 
that the disposition to sin is in us, and perhaps only checked 
by some form of policy, or of fear. 

The first point is to know evils to be evils. Then we 
need to know them to be our evils. Then we need to re¬ 
solve to put them away, as sins against God. Then we must 
resist them, whenever they come up, and give us wrong in¬ 
clinations. And then we must do the good which is oppo¬ 
site to the evil that we were inclined to do. 

Only thus do we buy the field with the hidden treasure. 
Thus, we make the spiritual sense of the Lord’s Word our 
own, in the measure in which we make the literal command¬ 
ments our own, by pradfice. The true way to regard our 
riches, is to ask, not What have I, in possessions? but What 
am I, in adlual character, judged by the standard of the 
Lord’s commandments? 

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER. 

The parable emphasizes the importance of knowledge. 
“Knowledge is power,” both physically and spiritually. 
The treasures of spiritual and heavenly life are all about us; 
and yet how little we know of their existence. 

For centuries, the gold fields of California and Australia 
were trodden by men who knew nothing of the vast amounts 
of treasure hidden under their feet. How often, mentally, 
we heedlessly tramp over the things which contain spiritual 
wealth, utterly unconcious of the possibilities about us. How 
often men may have died in poverty, lying upon ground con¬ 
taining wealth enough to ensure them immense fortunes. 
Farmers in Pennsylvania may have lost, under unpaid mort¬ 
gages, farms which contained oil enough to make millionaires 
of their owners. 

So, indeed, we die of spiritual poverty, even on the very 
ground in which our bountiful Lord has stored the treasures 
of eternal life. Sometimes, like the farmers of Pennsylvania, 
we have seen something of the oil, but have not known its 


138 Parables of the New Testament . 

value. The teachings of the Bible, and of the Church, are 
familiar to us, and yet we are blind to the treasures which 
dwell within them, ready for him who has eyes to see. 

THE COMING OF THE LORD. 

The Lord, Himself, came before men, in the incarnation. 
The treasures of the Divine charadder were in Him ; and yet 
men knew Him not. “ He was in the world, and the world 
was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came 
unto His own, and His own received Him not.” 

And, to-day, the revelation of the inward, spiritual sense 
of the Divine Word, in which the Divine charadder of the 
Lord, Jesus Christ, is plainly demonstrated, constitutes the 
Second Coming of Christ; for this coming is not to be an 
outward, bodily coming, in the physical “clouds,” but an 
inward, spiritual coming, in the “ clouds ” of the literal sense 
of the Word, which are parted before the eyes of spiritual- 
minded men, that they may see the greater glory of the in¬ 
ward and spiritual sense, in which the Lord, Jesus Christ, is 
plainly manifested, as the one God, in one Person, coming 
to the minds and lives of regenerate men. 

The Divine character is hidden in Jesus Christ; hidden 
to the world, but known to those who love Him. “Truly, 
Thou art a God that hidest Thyself, O God of Israel, the 
Savior.” And, to-day, even in His Church, we are talking 
about Him, and reading His teachings, but seeing not a mil¬ 
lionth part of the treasure that lies hid in His holy Word. 
“ Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal 
life; and they are they which testify of Me.” “ And I will 
give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of se¬ 
cret places.” 


The Merchant Seeking Pearls. 


139 


IX. 

€fje a^eccliaut Etching 5^farIjS. 

(MATTHEW XIII. 45, 46.) 

ACKNOWLEDGING THE DIVINE HUMANITY. 


THE CENTRAL TRUTH. 

The most important of all knowledge is that concerning 
God. The grandest theme of all the Divine Word, the most 
precious pearl of Christianity, is the truth of the Divine 
charadler of our Lord, Jesus Christ. 

This is the central and pervading topic of the Sacred 
Scriptures, dwelling as an inward meaning, within all the 
various teachings of the Bible. And this is the especial les¬ 
son of the parable before us. The parable of “ The Hidden 
Treasure ” suggests that the Church is in possession of a great 
treasure, hidden from the careless world; the inward spirit¬ 
ual meaning of the Scriptures, hidden from the merely nat¬ 
ural thought, but revealed to the spiritual mind. And now 
the present parable displays the fa£t that there is one great¬ 
est central truth of the Lord’s Word; viz., the truth of the 
Divinity of the Humanity of Jesus Christ. 

THE DIVINE HUMANITY. 

We use the term with exactness, “the Divinity of the 
Humanity of Jesus Christ.” For many persons admit some¬ 
thing Divine in the charadler of Jesus, especially in His in¬ 
ward life. But few grasp the full idea of the entire deity of 
Jesus Christ. The Old Theology, burdened with the irra¬ 
tional “mystery of the trinity,” has nothing to teach, as to 



140 


Parables of the New Testament. 


the Divine character of the Lord, Jesus Christ, except the 
general fa<ff, coupled with incomprehensible dogmas. 

But it is the mission of the New-Church to fulfil the 
Lord’s own promise, “ The time cometh, when I shall show 
you plainly of the Father.” And, in the New-Church, the 
Lord, Jesus Christ, has shown us plainly of the Father, by 
showing us His own identity with the Father, in one Divine 
Person. He. has shown us the Divine character of His own 
Humanity ; not the mere physical body; (for the mere ma¬ 
terial body is not an essential part of the humanity of any 
man;) but the assumed natural manhood of Jesus Christ, 
(all that is beyond the merely material part,) glorified, and 
united with the indwelling Father, and thus made one, in the 
one Person of the one God, Jesus Christ. “I and the Fa¬ 
ther are one.” “ He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father.” 

This grand truth of the Divinity of the Humanity of Je¬ 
sus Christ, is the “stone which the builders [have] rejected” 
from many of the Churches, but which, in the New-Jerusa- 
lem, “has become the head of the corner,” the grand corner¬ 
stone of the holy city. 

SELLING ALL THAT HE HATH. 

When this great truth dawns upon a man who is seeking 
spiritual truth, it throws a flood of heavenly light upon all 
things of man’s two-fold life. In its glorious light, all things 
that the man has known before, and has held as truth, are 
tested. And whatever, among his feelings, thoughts and 
habits, he finds to be inconsistent with the great central truth 
of Christianity, he gladly gives up. Spiritually, he sells 
them all, to possess the greatest pearl. He gladly rises 
above old, and now outgrown, views, as he makes a genuine 
effort to live as Jesus lived, to fulfil the whole truth, and to 
outgrow his old and selfish ways of life. 

THE MERCHANT. 

A merchant is one who buys and sells, in trade. And 


The Merchant Seeking Pearls. 141 

one who buys and sells useful articles represents one who 
procures knowledges of truth and good, that he may acquire 
intelligence and wisdom, and that he may communicate these 
to others. He is one who learns and teaches truths, for the 
sake of good. Trading represents making use of our mental 
riches. 

In the parable of “ The Talents,” those who used their tal¬ 
ents, or traded with them, increased their fortune, and were 
commended, while he who kept his talent without use, lost it, 
and was censured. 

Spiritually, merchants are those who collett truths from 
the Lord’s Word, for use. And, in communicating knowl¬ 
edge lor use, they are rewarded by the spiritual compensa¬ 
tion of increase in knowledge and intelligence, and in affec¬ 
tion for good and truth. “Happy is the man who find- 
eth wisdom, and the man who draweth out understanding. 
For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise 
of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.” 

SEEKING. 

The merchant was “seeking goodly pearls.” Seeking 
is an effort of the will, from the love of truth, for the sake 
of truth. We are commanded, “Seek ye the Lord,” 
and to seek heaven, etc.; because we should make an 
effort of our will to attain spiritual life, in union with the 
Lord. “Blessed are they that keep His testimonies ; that 
seek Him with the whole heart.” 

One who is seeking regeneration, and in whose mind 
the kingdom of heaven is forming, is seeking knowledges 
and truths, that he may live by them. He spiritually 
seeks goodly pearls, that he may mentally trade with 
them. 


PEARLS. 

“Pearls” represent knowledges of truth and good, or 
in the abstrad sense, truths, themselves. 


142 


Parables of the New Testament. 


Pearls are knowledges of an external degree, such 
as are in the letter of the Word. But by correspondence, 
these truths make one with the inward sense of the Word, 
its spiritual meaning. So, in advanced states of regen¬ 
eration, pearls are not only knowledges, but also truths ; 
for then we know and understand the truth. Whether 
a known doctrine is mere knowledge, or truth, or wisdom, 
in our minds, depends on the state of our regeneration. 

As pearls represent external truths, therefore it is said 
that, in the holy city, the gates are of pearl. ‘ ‘ And the 
twelve gates were twelve pearls : every several gate was 
of one pearl.” For gates are external truths, which serve 
as an introduction to what lies beyond, or within. The 
gates of the holy city are the external truths which in¬ 
troduce the mind into the knowledges of the system of 
spiritual truth. Every gate was of one pearl, to show 
the unity of truth. For the Lord is one ; and every truth 
is, in its best sense, an introduction to some further knowl¬ 
edge of the Lord. And our knowledge and acknowl¬ 
edgment of the Lord draw together, and conjoin into 
one, all the knowledges of truth and good which are de¬ 
rived from the Divine Word. All knowledge is, in its 
essence, knowledge of the Lord. Theology is knowledge 
of God. 


ILLUSTRATION. 

As the parts of the human body are various and dis¬ 
tinct, and yet all connected in one body, and all united in 
their active co-operation, for the common good of the 
body; so, in the mind, all truths are parts of a general 
system of thought; and all are related and connected in 
their co-operation, in uses. As the body acts as one, 
moved by the indwelling spirit, so all truths are as one 
body, acting as one, under the Divine Spirit, which is 
their soul and life. 


The Merchant Seeking Pearls. 


x 43 


THE LORD IN ALL. 

Only as we see the Lord, in any knowledge, does that 
knowledge become of any spiritual use to us. “I am the 
Door,” said the Lord, “by Me if any man enter in, he 
shall be saved.” 

The very same knowledge, or dotfrrine, if separated 
from the Lord, will not enable the man to enter into spir¬ 
itual life, nor to be saved from the spiritually deadening 
influence of his own evils. Hence, we see the great im¬ 
portance of an acknowledgment of the Lord, and the 
great danger of infidelity towards God. The trouble with 
the merely moral man, is that he attempts to do good for 
his own sake, while the spiritual man does good for the 
sake of the Lord. 

As a man seeks knowledge, and uses it, in living by 
the truth, he acquires good. And, in earnestly seeking, 
he finds what he seeks ; and more, also. He finds pearls, 
in great numbers; but he also finds one great pearl of 
immense value, which is worth more than all he before 
possessed. Seeking knowledge, he attains truth; and 
seeking the truth, he attains goodness. He finds the good 
towards which all truths point, the good of regenerate 
union with the Lord. 

While Martha was seeking many things, and full of 
trouble about them, she was told by the Lord, that Mary 
had chosen the one thing needful, in seeking to draw 
nearer to the Lord, in heart and in life. 

THE UNITY OF GOD. 

Only as we see the unity of God, can we comprehend 
the unity of truth. In the old mythology, there were 
various gods, often opposed to each other. And so, in 
the mind of the natural man, who sees not the unity of 
God, rnost of the truths seem to be separate, different, 
and often in conflidl, not harmonizing under any grand 


144 Parables of the New Testament. 

central truth, and not co-operating in any united purpose. 
Only as we see the unity of God, in the Lord, Jesus 
Christ, can we comprehend Christianity, in the fulness of 
its spirit and scope. 

But, as we learn to comprehend the fulness of the Di¬ 
vine chara< 5 ier in the glorified Humanity of Jesus Christ, 
the one grand central truth of spiritual life arises, like a 
king, and draws together, systematizes, and unitizes, all 
the truths that we know, on all the planes, and in all the 
degrees, of our varied human life. Jesus said, “I am the 
Way, the Truth, and the Life.” And He said, also, 
“Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have 
eternal life; and they are they which testify of Me. ’ * 

THE GROWTH OF THE TRUTH. 

A pearl is formed gradually, layer upon layer. It is 
not a simple ball, but a series of coverings, over a small 
core. So, the knowledge of the Lord gradually forms in 
our minds, from a small beginning, “line upon line,” 
until the grand truth is complete, as a finished pearl. 
The mind that is seeking goodly pearls, is looking for 
important knowledges and truths; and when prepared, 
by gradual growth, it finds the priceless pearl of the 
knowledge of the real chara&er of the Lord, Jesus Christ, 
as the one Person of God. 

But knowing the genuine truth, does not mean know¬ 
ing it merely in therory, as a do&rine, but knowing it 
pradlically; knowing it so that we keep it in mind, and 
a< 5 t from it, as a living principle. Knowing the truth 
thus, we see the Lord in all truth. 

As the Lord is the incarnate Word, and as the written 
Word is the Divine Truth, so we see all good and truth 
to be in the Lord, and of the Lord; and we see all truth 
to be in the Lord’s Word, and from the Word. Espe¬ 
cially are these things seen and known in and from the 
inward, spiritual sense of the Word, in which the Divine 
Humanity of Jesus Christ is clearly shown. 


The Merchant Seeking Pearls. 


145 


THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF TRUTHS. 

We may hold this great truth, and yet we may not 
have noticed that it is the most valuable of all truths that 
we have. Our minds may not have been direded to the 
real quality of this one great pearl. For it is, with 
knowledges, as with pearls; their value depends not on 
their quantity alone, but also upon their quality. The 
largest is not always the most valuable. 

In the beginning of our Christian knowledge and ex¬ 
perience, the dodrine of the Lord may not seem to be 
of very great importance. It may be one of the doc¬ 
trines we know, and which we suppose we believe; but 
it may not seem to be the most important. It may seem 
to be more important to have the practical doctrines, 
which regulate our daily life. 

But as we love the truth, and see the Lord in it, and 
go on selling all that we have, in order to make the truth 
our own, we see, more and more, that the Lord is in all 
truths; and that all knowledges point to the Lord, as “the 
Way, the Truth, and the Life;” that every truth in the 
Lord’s Word, however it may seem to refer to outward things 
only, still teaches, in its inward sense, something concerning 
the Lord, while it shows us how to make our manhood more 
like His, the full “measure of a man, that is, of an angel.” 

ILLUSTRATION. 

In the Mosaic account of creation, the light is said to 
have been created some days before the sun was created. 
But Genesis, as the Word of the Lord, treats not of geology 
and the making of the physical world ; but, in the language 
of symbols, it treats of theology, and of the making of the 
mental world of the human spirit. 

Light was distinguished, before the sun was seen, to re¬ 
present the fad that general truths are seen, by the growing 
mind, before the Lord, the Divine Sun, is seen, and recog- 


146 Parables of the Neiv Testament. 

nized, individually, as the Source of all truth, or mental 
light. 

Suppose a little child should be shown the light, without 
being shown the sun, and without knowing the connection 
between the light and the sun. He might see the sunlight, 
the moonlight, the firelight, etc.; and he would regard them 
as derived from several different origins. But, show him the 
the sun, and teach him the origin of light in and from the 
sun, and he will understand the connection. Then, grad¬ 
ually, as he becomes more and more intelligent, he will, 
from instruction, understand that all light originates in and 
from the sun, whether it be direCt light, or reflected, or re- 
fraCted, or light now brought out of the heat that was long 
ago stored in the coal, the coal-oil, etc., by the sun. 

So, the spiritually intelligent mind, thoroughly instructed 
in the truth of the Divine Humanity of Jesus Christ, un¬ 
derstands the Lord as the one Source of all life and light. 
He sees that every truth is the Lord’s, and that it is filled 
with His life. He will never fail to ascribe all truth to the 
Lord, Jesus Christ. He will walk in the way of the Lord’s 
commandments. He will go to work, in earnest, to free 
himself of such things as prevent his spiritual progress. 

REPEATED SELLING. 

In the parable of “The Hidden Treasure,” the man went 
and sold all that he had, and purchased the field. And now, 
in the next parable of the series, the finder of the pearl must 
sell all that he has. And yet these parables represent pro¬ 
gressive and successive states of the same mind. 

But, it may be asked, if the man has sold all he had, how 
can he sell any more? The first case refers more especially 
to giving up the love of the world ; and the second refers to 
giving up the love of self. Each advance in char after 
brings another advance in mental light. And then the man 
sees more things, in himself, that he needs to give up. In 
each stage of progress, he sells, or gives up, all that he then 
sees, in himself, of evil and falsity. 


The Merchant Seeking Pearls. 


147 


PEARLS BEFORE SWINE. 

Our Lord warns us, “ neither cast ye your pearls before 
swine.” These swine are our own sensuous lusts of evil. 
Our Lord cannot lift us up into heavenly life, by means of 
heavenly truths, if our affe< 5 Hons grovel in the filth of a cor¬ 
rupt nature. It is one thing to know the truth, theoretically, 
and another thing to live by it. Even profane Babylon, 
corrupt and worldly, is, in the Scriptures, represented by a 
woman arrayed “in purple and scarlet, and decked with 
gold, and precious stones, and pearls.” She knows the 
truth, and professes holiness in outward things, but profanes 
all good and truth, by inward corruption. 

THE JOY OF KNOWING TRUTH. 

Both this parable and that of “The Hidden Treasure,” 
show us that the knowledge of spiritual truth brings with it 
many joys. “The secret of the Lord is with those that fear 
Him ; and He will show them His covenant.” And the 
higher the truth, the higher the joy. 

The Divine Word is inexhaustible; we can never out¬ 
grow its truths; but we can grow more and more intelligent 
in seeing and understanding what is in the Divine Word. 
The Word is Divine Truth, in all degrees, and adapted to 
all degrees and planes of human thought and life. All our 
new light is from the Lord’s Word; and all our new truth 
is only new knowledge of what is in the Divine Word. All 
the pearls of knowledge are but gates to the holy city of the 
New-Jerusalem, the mental city of our Lord. “ Every sev¬ 
eral gate is of one pearl.” 


148 


Parables of the New Testament. 


X. 

€fje SDratosJ^et. 

(MATTHEW XIII. 47-50.) 

THE SEPARATION OF THE GOOD AND THE EVIL. 


THE JUDGMENT. 

The teachings of the Church prepare men for judgment. 
The Divine Truth, operating upon the charadlers of men, 
separates the evil from the good, by the development of op¬ 
posite qualities. 

For spiritual separation is a matter of state, or charadler, 
rather than of place. Men who develop into opposite charac¬ 
ters, spiritually separate. They grow apart. Physically they 
may be located very near to each other, but, mentally, they 
dwell in different worlds. 

In the spiritual world, distance is determined by character; 
those are near each other, who are nearly alike in character: 
and those are distant from each other, who are dissimilar in 
charadler. 

And it is so, mentally, even in this world; for we say of 
one who is of our own kind, “he is near and dear to us 
and of one who is dissimilar, and who does not love us, “he 
is distant.” 

Heaven is not merely a place, into which men may be 
admitted by Divine favor. The man who is admitted into 
the kingdom of heaven is the man who admits the heavenly 
principles of good and truth into his heart, into his under¬ 
standing, and into his conduct; and who thus becomes a 
living embodiment of heavenly principles. 



The Draw-Net. 


49 


WATER. 

“Water” represents, and corresponds to, natural truth; 
that is, truth on the natural plane of thought, external truth; 
such, for instance, as is in the literal sense of the Divine 
Word, especially of the Ten Commandments. 

THE SEA. 

The “sea,” as the aggregate collection of waters, repre¬ 
sents the letter of the Lord’s Word, as the reservoir of 
natural truths. 

And, as these truths are stored in the memory of a man, 
so, in one sense, the sea often represents man’s natural mem¬ 
ory, filled with the waters of truth. 

FISHING. 

“Fishes” represent the living principles that are in the 
doctrines of truth, in man’s memory. 

Personally, the fish are those persons who have knowledge 
of good and truth, and who receive truths on the natural 
plane, as information, or science. Such men may be either 
good natural men, or evil natural men. In this world, in¬ 
struction is given to all men, as the wheat is sown broadcast 
over all the field. 

Fishing represents instructing and-converting men who 
are in external and natural states of mind and life. And 
fishermen are those who draw truths from the letter of the 
Word, and teach them to others. Therefore the Lord chose 
fishermen for His first disciples, because their occupation 
represented the new occupation to which He called them. 
And, in calling them, He said to them, “Follow Me, and I 
will make you fishers of men.” The disciples, like the pro¬ 
phets, represented the principles which they taught. 

The fish is a low form of life, cold-blooded, and not in¬ 
telligent. So, men who are spiritually called fishes, men in 
natural-minded states, are not, spiritually, in a high or intel- 


150 Parables of the New Testament. 

ligent condition. But they may be instrudied, and drawn 
out of their present condition, and into higher states of 
thought, and into knowledge of more exalted do&rines, as 
the fish are drawn up, out of the water, and into the vessel, 
or upon the shore. 


THE NET. 

The “net,” as a system of cords, put together in an or¬ 
derly way, for the purpose of catching fish, represents a sys¬ 
tem of doctrines, in orderly, logical arrangement, which will 
capture men’s minds, and hold them fast in the conclusion 
of the argument. 

The net, like almost all other representatives, may be 
used in either a good or a bad sense. In a bad sense, a net 
represents a connected system of false doctrines. But, in a 
good sense, the net is a system of true do&rines, confirmed 
by the Divine Word. 

“ Casting the net into the sea,” represents gathering nat¬ 
ural-minded men, to be instrudled, and teaching them the 
truths of the letter of the Word, rationally opened and ex¬ 
plained. Gathering “of every kind,” represents instrudling 
all men, men of all sorts. For we cannot tell, until we see 
what men are, in character, whether they will receive instruc¬ 
tion and become spiritual-minded. 

DRAWING THE NET. 

When the net was full, the fishermen drew it to the shore. 
The net being full, represents an abundance of knowledges 
of truth, in the understanding of the men who are instrudled; 
for then the men have sufficient knowledge to be able to dis¬ 
tinguish good from evil, truth from falsity, and sin from holi¬ 
ness. And, having sufficient knowledge, they can live by 
the truth, if they are disposed to do so. 

As “water” corresponds to natural truth, so the “shore,” 
the land, corresponds to natural good, which is the result of 


The Draw-Net. 


151 

living by the truth. It is the practical application of the 
truth to the things of life. 

When men are taught to know the truth, the next step is 
to get good from the truth, by practising it. All instruction, 
is given for the sake of its use, in making men better in 
character. And so when men are properly instructed, they 
become responsible for the praCtice of the truth that they 
know. 


THE PRACTICAL JUDGMENT. 

And thus their life becomes a practical judgment to 
them. Every man is judged by the use that he makes of 
his instruction. For the purpose of instruction is that men 
may live good lives. 

Every judgment comes in a full state, a state of ripeness, 
a prepared condition, when the man’s disposition and life 
are fixed and confirmed, either in good or in evil. 

In the history of the general Church on earth, every era, 
or dispensation, has been followed by a general judgment 
upon the men of that dispensation. 

In the parable of “The Tares,” the tares and the wheat 
grew together “until the harvest,” which was said to be at 
“the end of the world i. e., at the end of that age, or dis¬ 
pensation, or that general condition of the world. 

The final judgment, as it results in fully developing and 
confirming every man in his chosen character, necessarily 
results in permanently separating men who have been out¬ 
wardly together, but who have been gradually growing more 
and more dissimilar in character. Thus every general 
judgment is a separation of the good and the evil. 

And, individually, in each man’s mind, his judgment is 
the permanent separation of what is good from what is evil, 
in his mental life. For we approach our judgment as we 
approach a fixed state of character. And as our character 
becomes fixed, we confirm the principles which we love, and 
in which we live; and we rejeCt the principles which we no 


152 


Parables of the New Testament. 


longer hold in esteem. Thus, practically, a man judges him¬ 
self, by his own life. He judges himself to remain what he 
has made himself to be. “ He that is filthy, let him be filthy 
still, and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still.” He 
confirms, secures and retains, in his chara<Ter, the principles 
which he has made his own, by living upon them.. He calls 
them good, and carefully keeps them for use. But he casts 
away, as bad and useless, whatever principles he no longer 
loves and cherishes. Like the fishermen, he draws his full 
net to shore; and there he sits down, and sorts the fishes he 
has caught. He gathers the good into his mental vessels, 
but casts away the bad. 


SITTING. 

“ Sitting,” as a position more fixed and permanent than 
standing, or walking, represents a more fixed state of the 
will, or heart; a state in which the man is prepared promptly 
to decide as to what shall enter into his life. In the determin¬ 
ation of his will, he spiritually sits down, to judge of the 
things which come to him, as supposed principles of life. 
His desires being fixed, he now knows what he wants, and 
what he does not want; what is useful, and what is useless, 
what is good, and what is bad, to him. 

VESSELS. 

“ Vessels,” as hollow forms, to hold something, represent 
doctrines, which contain truths. But the “ net ” was the argu¬ 
mentative doctrine, by which he gathered the principles of 
life; and now the vessels into which he puts the good fish, 
are the interior, spiritual doctrines of the inward thought. 
He puts these living principles into all the do&rines which 
are necessary for his mental life. He fills every do&rine 
with a living principle; i. e ., he makes it no longer merely a 
do 6 Irine, but he accepts it as a principle of daily life. 


The Draw-Net. 


153 


THE SEPARATION. 

Thus, in his mind, a judgment is executed. Good and 
evil things, and true and false things, are separated. And 
the good things in his affections are joined with their corre¬ 
sponding truths in his thoughts; and evil things are cast 
out. 

And, as regards a general judgment, the same truths 
apply. The evil persons are separated from the good, when 
the good pass into the heavens, for which they are fitted, and 
when the evil pass into their appropriate hells; each going 
where his chosen and confirmed character takes him. 

Natural-minded men may be either good or evil. The 
test of their character is whether they keep the Lord’s com¬ 
mandments ; whether they follow their own natural desires, 
and live selfishly, or hold themselves under obligation to 
obey the Divine law, and thus resist their selfish inclinations, 
and praCtice self-denial, for the sake of good principles. 

THE END OF WORLD. 

“ So shall it be, at the end of the world,” or the end of 
the age, or the dispensation, in the general Church. 

Or, individually, so shall it be at the end of each stage of 
the man’s progress. “ The angels shall come forth, and sever 
the wicked from among the just.” Angels draw near, and 
seek to help, all men; but while their sphere is attractive to 
good men, it is repulsive to evil men ; for evil men cannot 
bear the presence of an angel. 

ANGELS. 

An angel is a regenerated man, who has lived on earth, 
and has passed into heaven. In an abstraCt sense, the angels 
who execute the judgment of good and evil in the individual 
man, are the good and true principles of the Lord’s Word, 
the spiritual principles which we have loved and adopted, 


154 


Parables of the New Testament. 


and which now judge of the quality, or character, of all 
the things that are in our natural minds. 

These angels “come forth,” out of the Divine Word, 
and from the Lord, “and sever the wicked from among the 
iust;” i. e., they draw the line between the things of regen¬ 
erate life and the things of evil and worldly life; they lead us 
fully to accept the good and to rejedl the evil. 

Or, if the man has confirmed himself in evil, then the in¬ 
terior truths of the Divine Word, when they throw their 
searching light upon the man’s mind, Separate the evil from 
among the good, in another sense; i. e., they compel the 
man to define his position and charadler. 

If he has hypocritically proclaimed his attachment to 
what the Church calls good and true, he will, in the nearer 
presence and sphere of the interior truth, feel such repug¬ 
nance to the truth, that he will break away even from the 
outward appearance of believing in the truth; as the rising 
sun, with its genial beams of heat and light, awakes to life 
the birds of day, and, at the same time, drives back into their 
congenial darkness, the dismal birds of night. The evil man 
will keep for himself the evil that he loves, and rejedl the 
truth and the good that he does not love. 

ILLUSTRATION. 

For instance, a young man is employed in a store. He 
has been brought up to regard honesty as an essential ele¬ 
ment of true manhood. And, in his usual outward thought, 
he esteems honesty; and he thinks himself to be honest. 
He experts to remain honest, all his life. But, as yet, he 
knows very little of his own actual condition of mind. 

Gradually, he develops a love of sensuous pleasures. He 
associates with other young men, who have acquired fast 
habits. He loves to be well regarded by his associates, and 
to have a name of being generous and liberal. Perhaps he 
also develops a love of display. He spends money freely, 
as long as he has the means. 


The Draw-Net. 


155 


Now, his love of pleasure, and his love of reputation 
among his associates, grow stronger and stronger. He 
thinks he must have more money. Now his selfish loves, or 
lusts, begin secretly to oppose his early esteem for honesty. 
Honesty, with him, is only a sentiment, not yet confirmed as 
a principle of life. In the eagerness of his desire for pleas¬ 
ure, and for reputation, he considers what he is to do. 

He stalls out with the increasing desire to feed his natu¬ 
ral tastes, and to keep up the habits which cater to his sens¬ 
uous desires. He has adopted a certain system of outward 
thought and doctrine, as to what is allowable and necessary 
to his life. 

This doctrine is his fishing-net. With it, he boldly rows 
out into the sea of his memory, which is filled with the teach¬ 
ings of his parents and of the Church, and the things learned 
from the world. He turns again, and rows back, drawing 
the net to the shore, full of all sorts of mental fishes, all sorts 
of principles of life. 

Then he sits down and sorts his fishes. His will now 
arouses itself, to judge of the chara< 5 ter of the things which 
he has drawn from his memory. He finds many living prin¬ 
ciples of goodness and honesty, and many false ideas of life, 
perhaps preverted notions of what has been taught him; 
perhaps wrong ideas which his parents have carelessly al¬ 
lowed to grow in his memory, uncorre£ted. Perhaps his 
parents, themselves, have had false views of what life is, 
and of how men should live. 

Now, at this point, the young man finds, in his thought, 
a plan of securing means for his pleasures, by stealing a lit¬ 
tle from his employers. 

His mental fishing-excursion has brought sharply before 
him two classes of principles, good and bad. Which shall 
he adopt? 

If he is trying to be regenerated, he will regard the true 
and good principles as good, and the false and evil ones as 
bad. And he will carefully gather the good into the vessels 
of his inward mind ; and, at the same time, he will promptly 


156 Parables of the New Testament. 

cast away the bad. He will see that dishonesty, even in its 
beginnings, will never result in any good, or in any happi¬ 
ness. 

But, if he is determined to have his sensuous pleasures, 
his love of pleasure will overcome his love of honesty; and 
then he will think that the teachings of the Church, and of 
his parents, concerning honesty, are not really good; but 
that they are addually opposed to his own interests. Then, 
in his affeddion and thought, he will put evil for good, and 
good for evil; in his folly, he will retain and cherish the bad 
principles, and cast away the good. 

Good, to him, will mean what seems good to his self-love ; 
what will agree with his lusts. But “Wo unto them that call 
evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and 
light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for 
bitter.” For they will go on from bad to worse, even while 
they imagine they are going towards happiness. 

Take the same case, of the young man tempted to steal 
from his employers. Having determined to satisfy his de¬ 
sire for sensuous pleasures, he rejedits the truths which coun¬ 
sel honesty. He defrauds his employers, perhaps but a little, 
at first. But his dishonesty grows by indulgence. And, 
after a continued course of stealing, his sense of integ¬ 
rity is more and more blunted; and he loses the ability to 
distinguish clearly between good and evil, and truth and 
falsity. He becomes fixed in the charadder of a thief. And 
sooner or later, he is overtaken by exposure. And then 
even his selfish pleasures must come to an end. 

And, in fadd, even while he was not suspedded, he was 
suffering daily torments, for fear of exposure. He has exe¬ 
cuted a judgment upon himself, by making himself a con¬ 
firmed form of his selfish lusts. 

HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL APPLICATION. 

Historically, then, the text relates to a general judgment, 
at the end of every general church, or dispensation. Then 


The Draw-Net. 


157 


the fishing- goes on, in natural things, in this world, and, in 
spiritual things, in the spiritual world. And then the shore 
is in the eternal world. 

Objectively, all spiritual judgments are executed in the 
spiritual world, because it is the spirit of the man that is 
judged, and such a judgment must be in that world where 
the spirit attains its full condition. 

And personally, each individual judgment is in the spirit¬ 
ual part of us, even while we are on the earth. At each 
stage of our spirit’s progress, it is judged ; and thus it enters 
its next stage. 

Before we become fixed in character we are always, 
spiritually, either preparing for, or undergoing, a judgment. 
The angels of Divine Truth are always drawing to shore the 
things that swim in our memory; and they are always sort¬ 
ing those things, and separating the evil from among the 
good. 

And the Church is helping us to do our part of the work, 
by instructing us in the principles which we need to know, 
and pointing out to us the way of heavenly life. And we 
are always casting the net of our doCtrine into the sea of our 
memory, and into the letter of the Divine Word, and draw¬ 
ing to shore the knowledges that abound in the Scriptures. 
As we take them, some of these are good and true, and 
others are falsified by our misconception of their meaning. 
And, in our rational thought, we gather the good, for use, 
and cast away the bad. 

THE PENALTIES. 

The parable declares that after the evil are separated from 
the good, the evil shall be cast “ into a furnace of fire,” and 
there shall be, among the evil, “wailing and gnashing of 
teeth.” The “furnace of fire” is not merely something out¬ 
side of the man ; it is the mass of the man’s own burning evil 
passions. “Weeping” is the anguish felt by evil men, be¬ 
cause they cannot satisfy their evil desires. “ Gnashing of 


158 Parables of the New Testament. 

teeth” is the chafing and collision of thought against what 
the evil men do not like. 

There is no vindibtive hell, in which the Lord purposely 
punishes evil men. The Lord seeks to create a heaven in 
each man’s mind and life. But men who resist the Lord, 
and pervert His principles, turning good into evil, and truth 
into falsity, make a hell in their own minds and lives. The 
judgment of men is merely the full development of their 
character. He who would be free from the results of evil, 
must give up the love and the prablice of the evils, them¬ 
selves. 

Divine Justice is also Divine Love; and it will never 
thrust before a man’s face a list of his outlived evils. Men 
are always judged by their charadler, not by their outward 
deeds, alone. When a man’s character changes, from evil 
to good, he has no need to fear any Divine wrath for the 
past. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die. .. .The right¬ 
eousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wicked¬ 
ness of the wicked shall be upon him. But if the wicked 
turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all 
My statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall 
surely live. ... But when the righteous turneth away from 
his righteousness, and committeth iniquity,... in his sin that 
he hath sinned ... shall he die.” “ If thou wilt enter into 
life, keep the commandments,” for they are the laws of life. 
Happy, indeed, both here and hereafter, are they who, in the 
light of the heavenly Word, sit down with the angels of Di¬ 
vine truth; who, in every step of progress, carefully examine 
the spiritual quality of the things which move their affedlions, 
their thoughts, and their condudl; and of whose life the an¬ 
gels may truly say, “they gathered the good into vessels, 
and cast the bad away.” 


The Instructed Scribe . 


159 


XI. 

€Jjc gnstrurtcD ^criBe. 

(MATTHEW XIII. 51, 52.) 

THE LIVING RECEPTION OF SPIRITUAL AND NATURAL TRUTHS. 


THE QUESTION. 

After Jesus had spoken the connedted series of parables 
recorded in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew, He said to 
His disciples, “ Have ye understood all these things?” This 
question is asked of each of us, in our inward minds. Hav¬ 
ing read these Divine parables, do we rationally grasp their 
spirit, hidden within their literal sense? For they will be of 
use to us, only in so far as we rationally understand them, 
and can adopt them in practical life. Only thus can a man 
come into an affirmative state towards the truth. If he does 
not know what the truth is, or if he understands it indefinitely, 
he will not have any well-defined and positive truth, that he 
can affirm and love. His mind will be in doubt, like the 
man who is uncertain whether he is traveling on the right, 
road. The clearer the man’s understanding of any truth, 
the more positively and affirmatively he can place his affec¬ 
tions upon that truth. 

To understand the parables, spiritually speaking, means 
more than merely to see the truths that are in them : it 
means, also, to assent to these truths; to affirm them, as 
principles of practical life, for the government of both the 
spirit and the conduct. Therefore, when we hear the truth, 
the Lord, operating in the interiors of our minds, suggests 
the inquiry, “Have ye understood all these things?” 



i6o Parables of the New Testament. 

THE ANSWER. 

And how are we to answer our Lord’s question? Our 
reply should be, “Yea, Lord.” But in what way shall we 
make our reply? If we answer from our outward thought, 
we may, like Peter, asserting his devotion to the Lord even 
unto death, find ourselves mistaken when the trial comes. 
We do not easily recognize the quality of our ruling-love, 
which is the main-spring of our charadler. And from our 
outward thought, we may answer our Lord’s question, with¬ 
out consulting our affedlion. 

But, on the other hand, it will not do to rely upon an¬ 
swering from our affedlion, because we are, at different times, 
in very different states of outward affedlion; and we are apt 
to speak from this outward affection, only. How, then, shall 
we answer our Lord’s question ? Our daily life is our answer. 
“Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes 
of thorns, or figs of thistles?” Our life must give an answer, 
because, in the life, we have the union of our affedlion and 
our thought. 

If we read the parables of our Lord, and adopt their in¬ 
ward truths as the pradlical precepts of our daily life; if we 
allow them to form our affedlions, thoughts and conduct; 
then we are in a positive and affirmative state towards these 
truths. We know they are true, as surely as we know the 
primary principles of mathematics are true. We understand 
them, we love them, and we do them. 

And when we are in this condition of inward and out¬ 
ward life, our life, itself, speaks its answer, “ Yea, Lord.” And 
it is of no avail for us to answer in any other way, if we do 
not, at the same time, answer in our daily life. “Why call 
ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say?” For 
the life is the summing up of the whole man. And he who 
has a positive, affirmative love to the Lord, and to His truth, 
will necessarily show his love in his conduct. 

“A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit.” 


The Instructed Scribe. 


161 


THE SCRIBE. 

" Every scribe, instructed unto the kingdom of heaven, is 
like unto a man, a householder, who brings forth, out of his 
treasures, things new and old i. e ., those who are in an 
affirmative state towards the Divine Truth, being instructed 
in that truth, become living images and likenesses of the 
Lord; building up their life from the Lord, from both the 
spirit and the letter of the holy Word. 

The scribes were a body of learned men, who had charge 
of the Divine Law, and who, therefore, were called lawyers, 
or doctors of the ecclesiastical Law. They were also the 
copiers of the Law. And they taught the doctrines of the 
Law. 

In a good sense, the scribe represented intelligence in 
truth ; for he was “learned in the law.” The scribes wrote, 
or copied, the letter of the Law of the Old Testament, and 
thus became familiar with it, and stored it up, as a treasure, 
in their natural memory. And the man of the Christian 
Church writes the spirit of the Law on his heart, and in his 
understanding, by living according to it. He is spiritually 
a scribe; he is a scribe instructed unto [or into] the kingdom 
of heaven. 

The office of the scribe was a good and useful one. But, 
in time, as the Jews fell into evils, they perverted the Divine 
Law ; and then the “scribes and Pharisees” became “hypo¬ 
crites,” exercising an evil power over the people. In the 
parable, the scribe is mentioned in a good sense. 

THE INSTRUCTED SCRIBE. 

Spiritually, a scribe instructed unto [or into] the king¬ 
dom of heaven, is one who is instructed in the spiritual truths 
and good principles of the Word of the Lord. For the 
kingdom of heaven is built up in man, by living according 
to the heavenly truths of the Divine Word. And the more 
interiorly the man understands these truths, the more interi- 


162 Parables of the New Testament. 

orly he can live by them, and the more freely the kingdom 
of heaven can be established within him. 

There is a great difference between being instructed unto 
[or into] the kingdom of heaven, and being instructed about 
that kingdom. The former is instrudlion in the rational un¬ 
derstanding and acceptance of truth ; and the latter is instruc¬ 
tion in the knowledge of doCtrine. And doctrine becomes 
truth, to those, only, who see it to be true. 

THE MAN AND THE HOUSEHOLDER. 

The instructed scribe is “ like unto a man, a householder, 
who bringeth forth, out of his treasures, things new and old.” 
The “man” represents the truths in the understanding, and 
the “householder” represents the good in the will. Both are 
mentioned, to express their union, in the regenerate man. 
The will is the inmost dwelling- place of the man; it is his 
private house. « 

In the supreme inward sense, the householder is the Lord, 
Himself, whose house, or dwelling-place, is in the heart of 
the regenerate man. In a lower sense, the house is the 
Lord’s Church, and heaven; for these are the Lord’s dwell¬ 
ing-places. 

The scribe is said to be like the householder. As men 
love the Lord, and live by this love, they become like the 
Lord, or likenesses of the Lord. And as they know the Lord’s 
truths, and live by them, they become images of the Lord. 

THE TREASURES. 

The treasures of the Lord, as a householder, are all the 
heavenly good and true principles which are in the spirit of 
His Word. And these heavenly treasures are brought out 
in the letter of the Word, in the good and true principles, 
which apply to man’s natural conduct. 


The Instructed Scribe . 


163 


NEW AND OLD. 

And these treasures, which are brought out, are called 
“things new and old.” The “new” things are the things of 
the interior, spiritual life, from the spiritual sense of the Word, 
which are momentarily filled with new life, from the Lord. 
And the “old ” things are the things of the outward life, the 
precepts of the external conduct, which are from the letter of 
the Word. These literal things are called older, because 
they are more distant from the interior and Divine Source 
of all good, truth and life. 

Paul speaks of the spirit and the letter of the Scriptures 
as new and old, when he says, “we should serve in newness 
of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.” 

Man’s will is the treasury of his love, with its affe< 5 fions ; 
and his understanding is the treasury of his wisdom, with its 
thoughts; and his life is the treasury of his practical good¬ 
ness, or holiness. Thus the Lord fulfils His promise, “ I will 
put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.” 

FULFILLING THE LAW. 

Observe that both the new and the old things are brought 
out from the treasure. The Old Testament Law is not to be 
taken away by the New Testament. Calvanists say, “We 
are not under the Law, but are under grace; i. e ., we are not 
held by the Law; and we do not have to live by it, for the 
Lord, Jesus Christ, has fulfilled the law, for us.” But the 
Lord could not fulfil the Law in our stead. But, in His Hu¬ 
manity, He fulfilled it, to make it possible for us to fulfil it. 
And we must fulfil it for ourselves; i. <?., we must obey the 
Law, and thus fulfil it, or fill it full of life and love. Jesus 
restored to men the opportunity to fulfil the law, when He 
reinstated men in the liberty to choose between good and 
evil. 

And we must keep the Law of the Commandments, as 
much as the Jew had to keep it; and even more; for, while 


162 


Parables of the New Testament. 


orly he can live by them, and the more freely the kingdom 
of heaven can be established within him. 

There is a great difference between being instructed unto 
[or into] the kingdom of heaven, and being instructed about 
that kingdom. The former is instruction in the rational un¬ 
derstanding and acceptance of truth ; and the latter is instruc¬ 
tion in the knowledge of doCtrine. And doctrine becomes 
truth, to those, only, who see it to be true. 

THE MAN AND THE HOUSEHOLDER. 

The instructed scribe is “like unto a man, a householder, 
who bringeth forth, out of his treasures, things new and old.” 
The “man” represents the truths in the understanding, and 
the “householder” represents the good in the will. Both are 
mentioned, to express their union, in the regenerate man. 
The will is the inmost dwelling- place of the man; it is his 
private house. « 

In the supreme in-ward sense, the householder is the Lord, 
Himself, whose house, or dwelling-place, is in the heart of 
the regenerate man. In a lower sense, the house is the 
Lord’s Church, and heaven ; for these are the Lord’s dwell¬ 
ing-places. 

The scribe is said to be like the householder. As men 
love the Lord, and live by this love, they become like the 
Lord, or likenesses of the Lord. And as they know the Lord’s 
truths, and live by them, they become images of the Lord. 

THE TREASURES. 

The treasures of the Lord, as a householder, are all the 
heavenly good and true principles which are in the spirit of 
His Word. And these heavenly treasures are brought out 
in the letter of the Word, in the good and true principles, 
which apply to man’s natural conduct. 


The In strutted Scribe. 


163 


NEW AND OLD. 

And these treasures, which are brought out, are called 
“things new and old.” The “new” things are the things of 
the interior, spiritual life, from the spiritual sense of the Word, 
which are momentarily filled with new life, from the Lord. 
And the “old ” things are the things of the outward life, the 
precepts of the external conduct, which are from the letter of 
the Word. These literal things are called older, because 
they are more distant from the interior and Divine Source 
of all good, truth and life. 

Paul speaks of the spirit and the letter of the Scriptures 
as new and old, when he says, “we should serve in newness 
of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.” 

Man’s will is the treasury of his love, with its affe< 5 tions; 
and his understanding is the treasury of his wisdom, with its 
thoughts; and his life is the treasury of his practical good¬ 
ness, or holiness. Thus the Lord fulfils His promise, “ I will 
put My law in their inw r ard parts, and write it in their hearts.” 

FULFILLING THE LAW. 

Observe that both the new and the old things are brought 
out from the treasure. The Old Testament Law is not to be 
taken away by the New Testament. Calvanists say, “We 
are not under the Law, but are under grace; i. e. } we are not 
held by the Law; and we do not have to live by it, for the 
Lord, Jesus Christ, has fulfilled the law, for us.” But the 
Lord could not fulfil the Law in our stead. But, in His Hu¬ 
manity, He fulfilled it, to make it possible for us to fulfil it. 
And we must fulfil it for ourselves ; i. e ., we must obey the 
Law, and thus fulfil it, or fill it full of life and love. Jesus 
restored to men the opportunity to fulfil the law, when He 
reinstated men in the liberty to choose between good and 
evil. 

And we must keep the Law of the Commandments, as 
much as the Jew had to keep it; and even more; for, while 


166 Parables of the New Testament. 

upon our own hearts the principles we love, and on which 
we live. By and in our lives, we are writing our books of 
life. And we shall be judged by the things that are written 
in our books; not by the things that we expert, some time, 
to write, when we feel more like doing so; not by our mere 
sentimental attachment to good principles; but by the prin¬ 
ciples which we have actually written into our own daily 
life. We can bring out, in the next world, only what we 
have put into the books, in this world. If we desire and 
work for, outward things, only, we shall lay up treasures on 
earth, and remain poor towards heaven; but, if we lay up 
spiritual treasures for spiritual uses, and for good natural uses, 
which make one with spiritual uses, then we shall lay up 
treasures in the heaven of our spirit, and also upon the earth 
of our natural mind. 

And, in such a life, we can daily bring forth, out of our 
“ treasures, things new and old.” 


The Unmerciful Servant . 


167 


XII. 

€fjc Unmerciful 4>ertmnt. 

(MATTHEW XVIII. 23-35.) 

UNFORGIVING SPIRIT 


THE PRINCIPLE. 

The law of spiritual life is use. The good that we love, 
and the truth that we think, become ours, for a< 5 hial life, only- 
in the degree that we a< 5 f from them, and thus embody them 
in our condu< 5 L The point of the parable is the illustration 
of this law of spiritual life, as it applies to the principle of 
mercy, or forgiveness of others. “ Forgive, and ye shall be 
forgiven.” “With what measure ye mete, it shall be meas¬ 
ured to you again.” And this law is not an arbitrary rule, 
like the enactment of a legislature, but a spiritual principle 
of human life. 

It is said of the Lord, “ With the merciful Thou wilt show 
Thyself merciful.” And the reason is plain ; those who see 
and appreciate the Divine mercy, are those who adopt it as 
a principle, and a <Et from it. They can understand the Lord’s 
love, in the degree in which they feel and a< 5 i from a similar 
love, in their dealings with men. And, on the other hand, 
those who have no appreciation of the chara< 5 ter of the Di¬ 
vine Love, are those who, in their own lives, are not making 
any effort to live from any such love. 

peter’s question. 

Peter asked, “ How oft shall my brother sin against me, 
and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, 



i68 


Parables of the Ne70 Testament. 


I say not unto thee, Until seven times, but until seventy times 
seven.” Possibly Peter may have had in his mind the Lord’s 
words, “ if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and 
seven times a day turn to thee, saying, I repent, thou shalt 
forgive him.” 

In the traditions of the Jewish elders, no man was re¬ 
quired to forgive any injury more than three times, to the 
same person. And Peter probably had the common idea 
of the natural mind, that, as every repetition of an offence 
makes the offence worse, there must come a time when the 
offender goes beyond any claim to be forgiven. Some such 
principle is adopted in the criminal law' of many countries. 

THE LORD’S REPLY. 

And the Lord’s answer must have greatly surprised Pe¬ 
ter. “Seventy times seven,” or four hundred and ninety 
times, was so great a number, that mentioned as it was, it 
clearly meant that men are to forgive others indefinitely, 
always, without counting the number of times. For the very 
idea of counting the times involves a natural desire to hold 
one’s wrath until the offender passes the limits, and then to 
punish him. 

But the Lord taught Peter, (and also, through Peter, He 
taught all men,) that our forgiveness of others does not de¬ 
pend on the number of their offences, but on our own states 
of mind ; and that we are to cultivate a forgiving disposition, 
which loves to forgive, for the good of the other person. 

What we need, then, is not to count how many times we 
have forgiven a person, but to see that any unforgiving dis¬ 
position is evil, and that it must be put away, in the regen¬ 
eration. 

SEVEN. 

“Seven” is a representative number, denoting what is 
holy. And “ seventy times seven ” emphasizes this holy spirit 


The Unmerciful Servant. 


169 

of love to all men, which should influence us, in all our deal¬ 
ings with others. “Be ye perfect, even as your Father in 
heaven is perfedt;” i. <?., be moved by a similar perfect and 
unselfish love to men. 


THE KING. 

“ The kingdom of heaven ” is the regenerate and heav¬ 
enly condition of mind and life. The king is the Lord, as 
the Divine Truth, ruling in the general heavens, and in the 
particular heaven of every regenerate mind. 

THE SERVANTS. 

The “servants,” with whom He reckoned accounts, are 
the human race. Men become truly the servants of the Lord, 
as they live in love, faith, and obedience to Him. To “reck¬ 
on ” with men, or adjust their accounts with Him, is to test the 
quality of their minds and lives ; to show what principles are 
adtuating them. This the Lord does, in each man, inwardly, 
and by means of the truth sown in the man’s mind. The 
King takes account with his servant, when the man, prop¬ 
erly instrudted in the truth, refledfs upon the quality of his 
own mind and life. 

Every wise man does this. And a “reckless” man is 
one who adts impulsively, without reflecting that a reckoning 
is to come. When the man reflects, it is the Lord who takes 
account, because the Lord moves every regenerating man to 
reflect upon the quality of his own character, and upon the 
influences that are bearing upon him. 

TEN THOUSAND TALENTS. 

There is some uncertainty about the exact value of the 
talent, because talents were of silver, and of gold, and they 
differed in value, at different times. But, in any view of 
the case, the amount of ten thousand talents was enormous, 
equalling several million dollars. 


170 Parables of the New Testament. 

And the value is intended to represent the immense and 
unlimited debt which we all owe to our Lord, for all His 
mercies to us. Literally, the reference is probably to the 
deputy of the king, a ruler of some province, who owed his 
position to the king, and who, therefore, paid tribute; as, in 
our day, for instance, the ruler of Egypt has been subject 
to the sultan of Turkey. 

INDEBTEDNESS TO THE LORD. 

Every regenerating man refledts upon what he owes to 
the Lord. And he sees how greatly he is indebted. Of 
course, much of this debt existed from the man’s birth; but 
the man did not previously recognize it. And now, as he sees 
his indebtedness, he recognizes the fadt that he has not, in his 
life, paid all his debts to the Lord; that he has lived for him¬ 
self, and for the world, rather than for the Lord, and for his 
fellow-men. 

And he sees that, as far as his own exertions are con¬ 
cerned, he is hopelessly in debt, and utterly unable to pay 
all that he owes to the Lord; “he had not [the means] to 
pay.” He sees that, of himself, he-cannot live as he should 
live, to pay his spiritual debts; that he cannot save himself, 
and must depend on the mercy of the Lord. 

TO BE SOLD. 

But, “his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife 
and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made 
that is, the reflecting man sees that he is not, naturally, so 
living as to discharge his debts to the Lord, but that he is 
naturally tending downwards, to the hells, by a life of self¬ 
ishness. And he is conscious that, unless he shall pay his 
debt of acknowledgment, gratitude and obedience to the 
Lord, he will be condemned by his own evils. 

Thus, to be “sold,” would be to come into such a degen¬ 
erate state, that his understanding would be fixed in false 


The Unmerciful Servant. 


17 


ideas, and his will in evil affeCtions, and his life in sin; and 
that all his possessions, mental and physical, would be used 
for self, and for the unholy life of evil. As an illustration, it 
is said of Ahab, “ There was none like unto Ahab, who did 
sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord.” 
In this state, the man will lose all that he could hold dear, 
spiritually; all that he thinks he has, of goodness, truth and 
uses. 


WIFE AND CHILDREN, ETC. 

The “ man ” represents the understanding; and his “ wife ” 
represents the will; and his “children” are the affections and 
thoughts born of the union of his will and understanding. 
“ All that he has,” are all the external things which belong 
to his natural mind and life. These are sold, sold into serv¬ 
itude, or slavery to evil, when they are alienated from the 
Lord, and devoted to self. 

The reflecting man recognizes this downward tendency 
of his natural disposition. Seeing his condition, he is 
alarmed, and pleads for mercy, acknowledging his debt, and 
his desire and intention to pay it, in time, and to devote 
himself to doing so; that is, he expresses his desire and in¬ 
tention to keep the Lord’s commandments, and thus to 
change his character, under the Lord’s direction, and by His 
mercy. 

His willingness to pay his debt, if possible, and when 
possible, represents his desire to be governed by the Divine 
Love, which is merciful, rather than to be judged by the 
rigid law of truth, which seems to be hard. 

THE PETITION. 

These things are meant by the words, “Lord, have 
patience with me, and I will pay thee all.” The man sees 
that, by the law, he is condemned, and that nothing except 
the Divine Love and Mercy can help him. He does not 
expeCt to be able to pay all the debt he has owed to the 


172 


Parables of the New Testament. 


Lord, in the past: but he intends to make such amends as he 
can, by now doing all he can do; i. e. y he will try to live as 
he should live. He will remember the Lord’s mercy, and 
he will try to feel, think and a< 5 t towards others, as he now 
asks the Lord to do towards him: i. e ., he will try to a6t 
from love and mercy, and not from rigid truth, separated 
from love: and not to hold others to a striker account toward 
him, than he now asks the Lord to do, in dealing with him. 

THE LORD’S RESPONSE. 

And the Lord recognizes the man’s condition, and aids 
him. As the man sees the Lord as a King, as the Divine 
Truth, reckoning with His servants, he is led to see and ac¬ 
knowledge his own debt to the Lord; and then, as he 
determines to do his best to pay that debt, this acknowledg¬ 
ment of the Lord, and of the man’s indebtedness, and his 
determination to keep the Lord’s commandments, now re¬ 
veal to him a new phase of the Lord’s character, His 
Divine Love and Mercy. “ The Lord of that servant was 
moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him 
the debt.” 

The man’s consciousness of his condition, and of his 
needs, produced humiliation, and a change in disposition. 
And these changes opened the man’s mind to a clearer per¬ 
ception of the real character of the Lord. For the Lord is 
always “moved with compassion.” But the letter of the 
text, being representative, does not utter spiritual truths in 
clear doctrines, but gives the outward and representative 
pidlure, accommodated to man’s natural mind. 

PAYING THE DEBT. 

All that the man can do, to pay his debt, is to renounce 
the dominion of his self-love; to deny himself; and to take 
up the cross, and follow his Lord, by keeping the command¬ 
ments, and looking to the Lord for support in his efforts. 


The Unmerciful Servant. 


73 


Thus the man unites himself, in heart, with the Divine 
Love, which is Infinite Mercy. Then he is brought into 
spiritual liberty; i. e ., the Lord looses him from the debasing 
slavery to his evils. And then the Lord forgives him the 
debt, because the man willingly gives to the Lord the life 
which he acknowledges to be due to the Lord. 

These operations go on in the inward mind, in the spirit 
of the man. But the man has not yet made himself secure 
in this principle of forgiveness, because he must yet carry it 
out in his own conduct, and thus confirm it as his own. If 
he would make an opening for the Divine Love to operate 
in his heart, he must, in his dealings with others, allow the 
Divine Love'to move him, and to control his action. He 
must be as merciful, and as patient, to others, as he sees the 
Lord is to him. As he does this, heaven will flow into him, 
and through him, to others. 

But, if he does not do so, he aCts from self-love, and 
then the Divine Mercy can not bless him, because he tries to 
keep it, for himself, alone. For the moment a man tries to 
use the Divine Mercy selfishly, and for himself, only, that 
moment he stops the flow of the Divine Mercy into his own 
heart, because he changes the character of what he receives 
from the Lord. 

Thus the Divine Mercy can bless a man, only in so far as 
it can flow through the man, to others. For the character¬ 
istic quality of the Divine Mercy is the love of giving good 
to others. And when the man selfishly refuses to use the 
Divine Mercy, in his dealings with others, he destroys, in 
himself, the characteristic quality of that mercy. 

THE PRISON. 

Thus, as the man declines to allow the Divine Mercy to 
fill him with its characteristic spirit, and to make him merci¬ 
ful to others, he stops the inflowing of the Divine Mercy into 
himself; and, being left without the blessing of that mercy, 
he is remanded to prison; i. e ., he takes himself back into 


174 Parables of the New Testament. 

the hell which his own selfishness makes. Thus, “the same 
servant went out, and found one of his fellow-servants, who 
owed him a hundred pence.” 

That he “went out,” from the presence of the king, 
means, spiritually, that he went out from communion with 
interior principles, in his spirit; he “went out” into his ex¬ 
ternal, his natural mind and thought. When he was in an 
interior state, he could see the Divine Love, forgiving men. 
But now he goes “out;” he begins to think and a< 5 f in his 
external mind and life. Anyone can make good resolutions, 
when he sees spiritual principles; but only the regenerating 
man keeps these resolutions, when he goes “ out,” into the 
common affairs of his outward life. 

THE FELLOW-SERVANT. 

The “fellow-servant” of the spirit, is the natural man, the 
natural mind. The spirit serves the Lord, and the natural 
mind serves the spirit, in the name of the Lord. Thus the 
spiritual mind and the natural mind are also fellow-servants, 
serving the Lord. The natural mind owes obedience to the 
spirit, and to the Lord. This is its debt of one hundred 
pence: all it can do. This debt is very small, in comparison 
with the spirit’s debt of ten thousand talents ; because the 
natural mind can do very little, and on a very low plane, 
towards what the spirit can do. The mercies of our natural 
life, though they place us in debt, are much less, in quantity 
and in quality, than the mercies of our spiritual life. 

The amounts of the two debts are intended to show the 
vast difference in the value of the two parts of our life. They 
show, also, how great must be our Lord’s forgiveness to¬ 
wards us, in comparison to any forgiveness which we can 
show towards others. 

THE SERVANT’S DEMAND. 

But the insincere natural man does not appreciate these 


The Unmerciful Servant. 


175 


fa< 5 is. He has gone “out” from the Lord’s presence in in¬ 
terior truths. The man “ laid hands on ” his fellow-servant, 
who owed him, “and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me 
that thou owest.” The man, thinking in his outward mind, 
demands that his natural mind and life shall furnish him all 
the pleasures he desires. He forgets that his natural life, 
also, should be given to the Lord. 

The neck is the communication between the head, repre¬ 
senting interior things, or the spirit, and the body, represent¬ 
ing exterior things, or the natural mind. Life from the 
brain flows through the neck, into the body. To “ choke,” 
or stop, that inflowing life, is to kill the body. 

And, in the mind, the analogous operation is to choke, 
or stop, the inflowing of the spiritual mind into the natural 
mind. And the man, thus spiritually choking his natural 
mind, also chokes the flow of the Lord’s life into his spirit. 
“ Pay me that thou owest,” is a demand to indulge in the 
delights of self-love, and to make the natural mind cater 
to the evil appetites of the man. 

THE FELLOW-SERVANT’S REPLY. 

“And his fellow-servant fell down at his feet, and be¬ 
sought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay 
thee all.” The natural mind acknowledges its duty to the 
spirit; it sees its duty to live by the commandments, at the 
bidding of the spirit. But, if we make our natural mind live 
a sensuous life, separated from the Lord, and opposed to His 
commandments, we throw our natural mind into prison, into 
the bondage of evil, which is hell. This is what the servant 
did, in the text, when he refused to show mercy to his fellow- 
servant. 


OTHER FELLOW-SERVANTS. 

“ So when his fellow-servants saw what was done, they 
were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that 


176 Parables of the New Testament. 

was done.” These upright fellow-servants are the truths in the 
natural memory, and in the conscience; truths which have 
been received from the Word of the Lord. These are very 
sorry ; they produce remorse ; they show the opposition be¬ 
tween the man’s life and the Lord’s commandments. They 
accuse him to the Lord. Then the lord, the king, called 
the unmerciful servant, and rebuked him ; i. e ., the Lord, by 
means of conscience, shows the man his present state, as 
one of evil, and of ingratitude. 

THE TORMENTORS. 

“And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tor¬ 
mentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.” The 
man, averting himself from the Lord, in his life, ceased to 
see the mercy of the Lord; and then he supposed that his 
sufferings were induced by the Lord, to punish him. And 
before he could again see the Lord’s real charadfer, he had 
to undergo temptation-combats against his own inclinations 
to evil. 

Thus, when the man inwardly knows the mercy of the 
Lord, and yet outwardly feels inclined to be unmerciful to his 
fellow-men, he will be subject to temptations, until he pays 
his debts ; i. <?., until he yields obedience to the laws of spir¬ 
itual life; until he gives up self-love, and accepts the Divine 
will, as shown through his regenerating spiritual mind. 

He must keep his own natural mind and life in order, as 
of himself; and then the Lord will keep his spiritual mind 
in order. For the natural life is the base, on which our 
Lord builds up our spiritual life. Our Lord will inwardly 
fill us with every spiritual principle that we will pradlise in 
our outward life. “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our 
debtors.” 

Every time we show an unforgiving spirit, we condemn 
ourselves, more than we condemn the other person. Even 
while we are complaining of the evils in the other person, we 
keep ourselves in worse evils. We have an opportunity to 


The Unmerciful Servant. 


77 


see our evils, but we lose our opportunity, when we see the 
evil in the other person, and do not see our own evils. 

MERCY. 

We must not, of course, mistake what is meant by mercy. 
Mercy does not mean indulgence of the evils of others, un¬ 
der a false external tenderness, which allows evils to go 
unchecked, until they burn out the spiritual life. Genuine 
mercy is spiritual; it is training the man for heaven, by 
training him out of his natural hell. 

Mercy relates not only to our a< 5 ts, but also to all our 
feelings and thoughts towards others. We are unmerciful, 
when we judge others by a stricter standard than that by 
which we desire ourselves to be judged. We are unmerciful 
when we cherish any unkind feelings or thoughts towards 
others. 

Before we can come out of the prison of our natural 
evils, we must feel, think and a6t towards others, from pure, 
unselfish love; and this, no matter what their charadter may 
be. We must love to lead them out of evil, for their good. 
And to lead them, we must walk in the way, ourselves. We 
cannot drive anyone out of evil, while we are, ourselves, 
walking in the way of evil. 

The Lord always forgives all men ; He has no feeling of 
unforgiveness. But no man can receive the practical ben¬ 
efits of the Lord’s forgiveness, until in his own life, he a< 5 ts 
from a similar forgiveness towards others. “ Blessed are the 
merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” 

REMOVING EVILS. 

When our sins are forgiven by the Lord, they are not 
washed away, but only removed to the outside of our life. 
We are withheld from them, by the power of our Lord, and 
with our co-operation, while we are willing to be so with¬ 
held. But, if we cease to do good, and fall back into evil, 


178 


Parables of the New Testament. 


we fall back into the power of evil, into the prison which our 
evils make for us. 

Only the mercy and power of the Lord withhold even 
the angels from evil. And the angels, knowing this, desire 
the Lord to lead them, and to withhold them from evil. But 
the devils are devils, because they will not allow the Lord to 
lead them out of evil, and to withhold them from evils. 
The angels know that, without the Lord’s help, they would 
be miserable. But the devils think they would be happy, if 
the Lord would only allow them to do as they please. Thus 
what the angels see as Divine Mercy, the devils think to be 
cruelty. “ With the merciful, Thou wilt show Thyself mer¬ 
ciful.” 


THE UNFORGIVING SPIRIT. 

The unforgiving spirit was one of the prominent evils 
which brought the Jewish dispensation to an end. So im¬ 
portant is the principle of forgiving others, that it is the one 
point in the Lord’s Prayer, which is repeated by the Lord, 
immediately after the prayer. Thus it is brought into 
marked prominence, as the principle which pradlically sums 
up the spirit of that model prayer. 

For, why should we pray for mercy which we do not use 
towards others? If a man will not do to others as he asks 
the Lord to do for him, he condemns himself by the same 
truths by which he seeks to condemn others. Men cannot 
do anything for the Lord, except as they do good to their 
fellow-men. “ Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the 
least of these, My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.” 

DIVINE FORGIVENESS. 

This parable illustrates the law of Divine forgiveness. It 
shows the falsity of the old dodfrines of “ Vicarious Atone¬ 
ment,” and “Justification by Faith, Alone.” The old idea 
was that the debt must be paid, by some one, because justice 


The Unmerciful Servant . 


179 


so demands. But, in the parable, the debt was not paid; it 
was forgiven. Arbitrary Justice was not satisfied. And, on 
the other hand, the sin was not wiped out, by any arbitrary 
mercy; but Divine Mercy operated upon the man, accord¬ 
ing to his state. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die,” 
because sin is death. 

In the parable, though the debt was forgiven, yet the 
man was afterwards cast into prison, for not forgiving his 
fellow-servant. 

But the fa <51 is, the man was not imprisoned by the Lord, 
but by his return to his own evils, which imprisoned him in 
sin. It appears, to the natural man, that the Lord punishes 
him, because he cannot see that his punishment is the 
necessary result of his own evils. 

The Lord asks no atonement for our sins ; He asks us to 
abandon our disposition to sin, and our pradlice of sin. And 
as we inwardly hate evil, and outgrow it, and love and do 
good, the Lord’s love can enter into our life. No arbitrary 
forgiveness can change our character. Opening all the pris¬ 
ons would not make the criminals better men. Nor would 
it make them any more truly happy; it would only allow 
them to plunge further into evil, and into the sorrowful results 
of evil. 

Divine forgiveness is as constant, and as eternal, as Di¬ 
vine Love. But forgiveness does not take away a man’s 
disposition to do evil. But when the man sees his evil nat¬ 
ural condition, and acknowledges it, and looks to the Lord 
for help, the Lord’s power can enter into the man, and in¬ 
wardly uphold him, because he opens his will, his under¬ 
standing and his life, to the Divine Influence. And then 
the Lord can withhold the man from evil; and can help 
him to say, “I have kept myself from mine iniquity.” 

The man can use the Lord’s power to help him, only so 
long as he is willing to co-operate with that power. 

Divine Mercy is not, in any case, from any change in the 
disposition of the Lord towards the sinner, but in the dis¬ 
position of the sinner, himself. When the sinner looks to 


180 Parables of the New Testament. 

the Lord, in love, the Divine Mercy can do, for the sinner, 
and in him, what the man would not, before, allow it to do, 
but what it was always seeking to do. 

Divine forgiveness is not a thing of the past, nor merely 
of the future, but of the present. If we now are withheld 
from evil and sin, it is because we now acknowledge our 
weakness, and accept the Lord’s aid, and keep his command¬ 
ments. We are sustained, at each moment, by the life 
which momentarily comes to us from the Lord. The law 
of spiritual life is use. What we use is ours ; what we ne¬ 
glect, we lose. 


The Laborers in the Vineyard. 


181 


XIII. 

€fjc ilaborcrtf in tfjc UincparD. 

(MATTHEW XX. I-l6.) 

THE ORDER OF REGENERATION. 


REGENERATION GRADUAL. 

Regeneration is a gradual growth. Necessarily, our latest 
stages of regenerate life are the best. In the beginning, our 
reformation is comparatively crude and superficial. But our 
Lord leads us onward, upward and inward, step by step, fur¬ 
ther into the kingdom of heaven, which is a heavenly condi¬ 
tion of mind and life; “For the kingdom of God is within 
you.” 


THE OLD IDEA. 

In considering this parable, probably it would be well to 
clear away, at once, the cloud of error which has long hung 
about it. It has long been used as an argument for death¬ 
bed repentance. But, the fa<T is, it has nothing whatever to 
do with that subject. The Old Theology has long taught 
that, as justification is by “faith, alone,” such faith may 
be attained on one’s death-bed, in the last moment of life. 
But, to make this parable favor such teaching, much strain¬ 
ing is necessary. 

In the first place, death-bed repentance would come to a 
bad man, who had been living in evil, heedless to the call of 
the gospel. But the eleventh-hour laborers were not revel¬ 
lers, nor disreputable idlers. They were waiting for work in 



182 Parables of the New Testament. 

the public market-place, in the acknowledged place where 
men looked for employment. “Why stand ye here, all the 
day, idle? Because no man hath hired us?” Is that the 
reply of a heedless and wicked man? Was it his fault that 
he had not been hired? He was well-disposed, and looking 
for work. 

These men might, figuratively, represent those who had 
been waiting for the Lord, but did not know where to find 
Him. They were like the Gentiles, who, being called long 
after the Jews, were well-disposed, but ignorant, yet ready to 
follow the Lord, when they learned about Him. 

THE ELEVENTH HOUR. 

Again, this idea of death-bed repentance confuses the 
eleventh hour with the twelfth hour. The eleventh-hour labor¬ 
ers did not fail to work. They began to work as soon as 
they were called. And they wrought as long as it was day. 
They wrought one hour. A dying man is one whose ability 
to work is at an end. He can not work at all. He has 
reached the twelfth hour. A dying man may be frightened 
into seeking religion, at the last moment, when there is nothing 
else that he can do. He may think he is willing to give up 
his worldly pleasures, when he is compelled to do so. 

But the eleventh-hour laborers went to work while they 
had the choice. They did all the work that they had any 
opportunity to do. So, in regeneration, we must do the 
work of repentance and reformation. Repentance alone is 
not enough; both the repentance and the amendment of 
the life are needed. 

Again, if, in the parable, the eleventh-hour laborers repre¬ 
sent those who repent at the last moment, then those who 
went to work in the vineyard at daybreak, must represent 
the life-long Christians. And yet these are the ones who 
make most unchristian complaints against the Lord, for giv¬ 
ing the eleventh-hour repentant sinners as good a heaven as 
He gives to the early converts. If this is so, it would not 


The Laborers in the Vineyard. 183 

argue a very good result of their long devotion to religion. 
We should expeCt their selfish tendency to complain of their 
Lord’s goodness would have been trained out of them, long 
before the end of their mature life. 

But, the fad; is, the parable, in its true meaning, makes 
no reference to death-bed . repentance. No such dodrine is 
taught in the Sacred Scriptures. “ The soul that sinneth, it 
shall die,” because sin is death. Spiritual death is not a 
punishment for sin, but a direct result of sin. And the death 
is in the sin. 


HISTORICAL APPLICATION. 

Historically, the parable refers to the Jews and the Gen¬ 
tiles. The Jews had the Divine Word, but had only a super¬ 
ficial knowledge of it, and little regard for it. The Gentiles 
were ignorant, but well-disposed ; and they received the Lord 
and His holy Word, while the Jews rejected the Lord, and 
rejected the Word, in spirit, even while they often made 
much of its letter. 

But all Scripture is given for our individual instruction 
and use. In its best sense, it refers to principles, rather than 
to persons or nations. It teaches principles, which are to be 
known, loved and practised, in the mind and life of every 
man. 

The arbitrary division of the books of the Bible into 
chapters, has confused the connexion of this parable with its 
context. It should be read in connexion with the latter half 
of the preceding chapter, about the rich young man, who 
would not give up his riches, and the subsequent question of 
Peter, “Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed Thee; 
what shall we have, therefore?” In this parable the Lord re¬ 
buked Peter’s feeling of self-merit. 

THE HOUSEHOLDER. 

The “man, a householder,” is the Lord, the Divine Man, 


184 Parables of the New Testament. 

who holds in His keeping our inward house of the mind. 
A man’s inward “house,” or home, is his will; for, in his will, 
he really lives and dwells. The will is the central life of the 
man; and his thought and his conduct are truly his own, in 
so far, only, as they are the free expression of his will. 

We find, in this parable, the “house,” the “vineyard,” and 
the “market-place;” representing, respectively, the will, the 
understanding and the memory. The Lord inwardly leads 
men in their will, and teaches them in their understanding, by 
means of the knowledges laid up in their memory. 

In a more general sense, the vineyard is the church, in 
which truths are planted, and in which men are taught and 
converted, through their rational understanding of truth. 
But, in the individual, the church js planted in the under¬ 
standing, or intellect, by means of the knowledge of Divine 
truths. 


HIRING THE LABORERS. 

The householder goes out to hire laborers into his vine¬ 
yard. Regeneration does not flow peacefully into the man, 
from the Lord, from the man’s interiors, through the inter¬ 
mediate things, into the external; i. e ., heaven does not 
simply flow into the man’s will, and through his understand¬ 
ing, into his life. This is the order in which he receives life, 
after regeneration; but it is not the order in which he is 
consciously regenerated. 

In regeneration, the Lord’s influence flows into the man’s 
interiors, his will, but first shows its effecSl in his exteriors, 
his conduct. Then, by means of obedience to the Divine 
law, as a rigid rule, the man is brought to understand the 
reason of the law. 

Thus the Divine influence comes back, from the exteriors 
of the man, through the intermediate things of his under¬ 
standing, into his will. Then the love of good, in the will, 
is joined to the practice of good, in the conduct; and this is 
accomplished by means of truths, which are first placed in 


The Laborers in the Vineyard . 185 

the memory, and afterwards raised up into the understanding, 
and then into the will. Thus the understanding is the vine¬ 
yard of the mind, where the man labors to bring forth fruit, 
in applying truths to his life. 

THE BEGINNINGS. 

In the young child, the first faculty which comes into 
conscious life, is the will, with its affections. Then the 
memory is opened, and fa< 5 ls are stored therein. Both the 
will and the memory are aCtive, long before the understand¬ 
ing assumes any positive form. Children exert their will, 
and love to know, and thus lay up knowledge in the mem¬ 
ory. After this, the understanding begins to operate upon 
that knowledge. 

When the rational faculty is opened, and the youth be¬ 
gins to think, as of himself, then all the knowledges laid up 
in his memory, become his laborers, working in building 
up his understanding. So, in our growth in regeneration, 
the new birth begins in the will. The will then aCts upon 
the knowledge in the memory. And, through the under¬ 
standing of truth, the man is led to unite his love of truth 
and his understanding of truth, in obedience to truth. 

THE LABORERS. 

Thus the knowledges, or things known, in his memory, 
become aCtive laborers in the vineyard of his understanding, 
which is operated by the will. Thus the householder comes 
out from the house, and hires the laborers into his vineyard. 
The house is the will; and, in the highest sense, the house¬ 
holder is the Lord, who is the indwelling Life of the man, 
the Holder of the man’s inmost life. 

Thus the householder goes out and hires laborers into 
his vineyard, when the Divine influence flows through the 
man’s will, into his memory, and there arouses his knowl¬ 
edges of truth, and sends them to labor in his understanding, 


186 Parables of the New Testament. 

to give the man a rational comprehension of the principles 
of truth. 

The understanding is the man’s vineyard; and yet, in the 
highest sense, it is the Lord’s vineyard, because the'Lord is 
the true Life of the man, and the One who begins and carries 
on all growth in regeneration. 

Knowledges of truth are fadts and ideas, in the memory. 
And they are waiting there, ready to be called into the vine¬ 
yard, when the will sees its way to apply them to the life of 
love, thought, and condudi They cannot, of themselves, do 
anything, until the will calls them to adtivity. 

DIFFERENCES. 

But there are differences in these knowledges in the 
memory. They are implanted in the memory at different 
times, and in different stages of the mind’s development. 
And they are called forth from the memory, to enter into 
pradlical work, in the understanding, at different periods of 
progress in regeneration. 

And now we have the key of this parable. The laborers 
are the knowledges in the memory, not, at first, diredtly 
employed in the adlive work of regeneration, but gradually, 
and in a certain order, called into the mental vineyard, in 
rational thought. 


THE HIRE. 

The “hire” of each laborer is the fuller life which he at¬ 
tains. Knowledge, by working in our regeneration, becomes 
lifted up from the memory, into the understanding, and is 
finally united with the affedtions. This is its recompense. 
“ The laborer is worthy of his hire.” The pay of goodness and 
of truth are in themselves. We are not paid for being good, 
but in being good. “Virtue is its own reward.” 

The householder agrees with the laborers for a penny a 
day, as wages. The Lord, in His providence, allows the 


The Laborers in ihe Vineyard. 187 

man, in beginning regeneration, to see something of the re¬ 
wards of regenerate life. For, in the early stages, the man 
cannot cast out all idea of merit and rewards. 

THE PENNY. 

The “penny,” or silver denarius, was the daily pay of the 
Roman soldier, and the common day’s hire of working men. 
It was equal to about fifteen cents of our money. As silver, 
it represents spiritual truth. The reward of employing our 
knowledges of truth in working for regeneration, is the 
clearer and higher perception of truth, which results from the 
use of knowledge, as well as the delight felt by the mind in 
such growth. For then, the spiritual mind sends its influ¬ 
ence down and out into the natural mind, and fills the natural 
mind with the sphere of a higher life. 

At the end of each state, or stage of progress, the will 
again goes out, or the Lord goes out from the man’s will, 
and arouses the knowledges in the memory to greater activ¬ 
ity, that they may be lifted up into the understanding, and 
may become rational truths. 

The reward of a penny a day, is the constant daily lifting 
up of the mind to clearer comprehension of truth, and to 
warmer states of love. In this, there is a daily strengthing, 
direCling and leading, of the mind, in the joys of regenerate 
life. 

The principles which are first made our own, in regener¬ 
ation, are the most external, and most general; they are, 
then, the least pure and least perfeCL There is much of self 
still left in them. A sense of self-merit taints them all. The 
man is still delighted with praise, and pained by criticism. 

THE HOURS. 

The different hours at which the different laborers were 
hired, represent the different stages of regeneration, and the 
order in which different kinds of knowledges are brought 


i88 


Parables of the New Testament. 


out of the memory into practical work in the understanding. 
The Jewish working day was from sunrise to sunset. As the 
Lord said, “Are there not twelve hours in the day?” The 
first hour was at sunrise, and the twelfth hour at sunset. 

The third, sixth, ninth and twelfth hours, are all multiples 
of three. And this is so, because the subject treated of in 
the parable is truth; and three is a number representing 
fulness in truth, a full period, as to progress in truth. 

REMAINS. 

To understand this parable, we must remember the order 
of regeneration. During our infancy and childhood, our 
Lord implants, in our impressible natural minds, certain 
states of good affection, of love towards our parents, nurses, 
etc. These are stored up in the child’s mind. In the lan¬ 
guage of the New-Church, we call these states “remains,” 
things stored up in the mind, and remaining there, for future 
use. “Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very 
small remant [or remains] we should have been as Sodom, 
and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.” 

These states, or “remains,” are stored up unconsciously 
to the child. But, as the man becomes mature, he must be¬ 
come regenerate, as of himself. Each spiritual principle 
enters into the man, from the Lord, inwardly; but it cannot 
become the man’s own, as a part of his conscious life, until 
it comes out into a corresponding degree of his conscious, 
outward life. Here it finds a base, on and in which it can 
rest. 


THE ORDER OF REGENERATION. 

So, every man’s practical regeneration, in his conscious 
life, begins at the last, or external and natural degree of his 
consciousness. He begins by simple obedience to the law, 
as known. Then he journeys upward and inward. And 
the last stages of regeneration are the best, because they are 
the most interior. 


The Laborers in the Vineyard. 189 

First, the love of pleasure is subdued by the development 
of a love of duty. Then the natural love of the world must 
be controlled by the love of the neighbor, which is spiritual. 
Then the natural love of self must be subdued by the celes¬ 
tial love to the Lord. Thus, we gradually cultivate, in 
succession, the principles of obedience, faith, and love. 

But we notice that the order of development of these 
principles, in our conscious life, is the very reverse of the 
order in which the knowledges were implanted in our minds, 
by the Divine Providence, unconsciously to us. Through 
our infantile love to our parents, celestial “remains” were 
first implanted in our minds. For, then, we were less self- 
conscious, and less of our hereditary evil was developed; 
and so the highest angels could then be spiritually associated 
with us. Truly, “ Heaven lies about us, in our infancy.” 
Our parents were as gods, to us; and our love for them 
became the natural base on which the love to God could 
afterwards rest. And our obedience to our parents became 
the base on which we afterwards built up our obedience to 
the Lord; hence the great importance of early obedience. 

After this stage, in childhood, our Lord, through our 
association with our companions, implanted the spiritual 
“remains” of love to our neighbor. And, further along, in 
the next stage, of youth, the Lord, through our desire to 
know, implanted the good natural “ remains,” of the love of 
obedience to known law. These are what we call spiritual- 
natural remains; i. e ., on the natural plane, but filled with a 
spiritual principle, naturally understood. 

# 

THE DEVELOPMENT. 

But, as the youth matures, these last remains are first 
brought into a&ivity. His “remains” commenced in the 
celestial degree; but his conscious regeneration begins in the 
natural degree. And it proceeds inward; until, in the full 
measure of regeneration, he again becomes as a little child, 
in the innocence of wisdom. And “of such is the kingdom 
of heaven.” 


Parables of the New Testament. 


190 


The Lord, unconsciously to us, has stored away in the 
interior of our minds, these “ remains,” or states of good and 
truth. And, now, as we arrive at maturity, or young man¬ 
hood, He takes us by the hand, and seeks to lead us upward 
and inward, back over the pathway of our inward minds, on 
which He has heretofore trodden alone. From infancy to 
manhood, while our Lord was secretly implanting the germs 
of a future regenerate life, we were developing our individual 
and selfish life. And now, on the outskirts of our mature 
mental life, the Lord meets us with the truth of His Divine 
Word, stirs up the knowledges in our memory; and induces 
us to walk to the development of our inward and spiritual 
manhood. We form a natural base, in keeping the com¬ 
mandments ; and from that base, and on it, we build up the 
higher manhood. 

THE FIRST AND THE LAST. 

Thus, the best principles, the undeveloped germs of 
which were implanted in our inward minds, earliest in our 
life, are the last to be made ours, in our conscious life. And 
the last knowledges and “remains” sown in our mind, are, 
in the journey back to loving innocence, the first to be made 
our own. Thus, “the first shall be last, and the last first.” 
The outward things, which first engaged our young man¬ 
hood’s affe< 5 fions, gradually sink to their proper place, as 
last, in the regenerate life; and the profounder principles, 
which our young manhood scarcely recognized, have be¬ 
come the first and highest, in our completed growth. 

The different laborers, entering the vineyard at different 
hours, represent the different kinds of knowledges, which are 
brought into pra< 5 fical use, at different stages of regenera¬ 
tion. 


THE ELEVENTH HOUR. 


Those called at the eleventh hour are the highest and 


The Laborers in the Vineyard . 191 

best knowledges, those “remains” of infantile love and 
peace, first sown in the innocent mind. And, to come to the 
development of these remains, and into the innocence of 
mature wisdom, is the work of the last hour, the last stage 
of regenerate progress. 

Until then, these “ remains,” or knowledges, were “stand¬ 
ing idle ” in the market-place of the memory; not because 
they were unwilling to work, but “because no man [had] 
hired them;” i. <?., there was not, as yet, any thing in the 
man’s conscious pratStical life, which could appreciate and 
use these pure “remains.” 

When the young man begins regeneration, he is in an 
external state; and he naturally first appreciates, and puts 
to use, those knowledges which are of an external kind, 
suited to his state. It will be a long while, and he will have 
much work to do, before he can see the pure, infantile states 
of love stored up in his mind, waiting to be employed in his 
conscious life. These purest states will stand longest, waiting 
in the market-place, before any man will hire them. They 
will be the last to be called into the vineyard of the under¬ 
standing, for practical thought and work. 

THE PAYMENT. 

But when the evening comes, at the end of life’s working 
day, and when the payment is to be made, i. e ., when the 
man is to be completed in his regeneration, in the spiritual 
world, these, who were called last to labor, will be the first 
to be paid. That is, being the highest and most interior 
states, they will be the first to feel the inflow of heavenly 
life, which comes from the Lord, to the will, and outwardly, 
through the understanding, into the life. 

But, the more external things, lying nearer the surface 
of our manhood, are necessarily more remote from the 
Lord’s dwelling-place in our inmost life, and are thus more 
remotely receptive of His inflowing life. 

The householder is now called “the lord of the vine- 


192 


Parables of the New Testament. 


yard,” because the understanding is brought into intimate 
harmony with the will, and has also become conscious of 
the Lord’s presence in it. 

THE STEWARD. 

The “steward,” who pays the laborers, is the rational 
mind, the thinking mind, which, in the regeneration, becomes 
the means of connection between the spiritual mind and the 
natural mind; and thus the means of carrying life from the 
spiritual into the natural mind. 

THE SETTLEMENT. 

But the first laborers were disappointed, in not receiving 
more pay than was given to the last laborers, though they 
were paid according to their own agreement. These first 
laborers were the most external things, in the natural mind; 
and they still carried something of the idea of self-merit, and 
of deserving praise and recompense. 

The burden they bore was made burdensome by their 
own self-derived intelligence; and the heat of their day was 
made oppressive by the fire of their own self-love. Here we 
see the tendency of our most external and natural-minded 
thoughts to claim something for self, and to be unsatisfied 
with the Divine Providence. But the higher principles of 
our inward minds learn to abase self, and to exalt the Lord. 
They see that the degrees of heavenly life are not rewards, 
but attainments. 


QUANTITY AND QUALITY. 

The natural mind always desires to determine things by 
their quantity, and fails to judge by quality. The natural 
man knows no rule but external weights and measures. 
But the Lord teaches us that spiritual things are determined 
by spiritual weights and measures; i. e. } by quality. The 


The Laborers in the Vineyard. 


193 


spiritual weight of a thing is its goodness, and the spiritual 
measure is its truthfulness. The spiritual “ measure of a man, 
that is, of an angel,” is not in feet and inches, but in good¬ 
ness and truth. 

By the very nature of things, the natural mind cannot be 
in the fulness of regenerate life, in the same degree with the 
spiritual mind. But each can be in its own kind of fulness. 
Each can earn its penny a day. No wrong is done to the 
external man, in making it what it is. No wrong is done to 
the foot, in creating it less sensitive than the eye. 

Let each part of our manhood be in its own proper or¬ 
der, and it will be in its greatest possible happiness; as, in 
human society, every man is adapted to a certain position, 
and he will be happiest, as well as most useful, while in that 
position, contentedly performing uses. All who are regen¬ 
erated, are brought into heaven, each in such degree as he 
has become capable of receiving. 

CALLED AND CHOSEN. 

“Many are called, but few are chosen.” They are “ called” 
who hear the truth calling them to regeneration. But they 
are “ chosen,” who love and do the truth; and who thus 
choose the life of truth and good. 

“ The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are 
over all His works.” “ For He is Lord of lords, and King 
of kings ; and they that are with Him are called, and chosen, 
and faithful.” 


194 


Parables of the New Testament 


XIV. 

€1Ctoo £oti0. 

(MATTHEW XXI. 28-32.) 

EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL EVILS. 


HYPOCRISY. 

The hyprocrite is even worse than the open sinner. For 
the hyprocrite is inwardly bad, though outwardly appearing 
to be good. He knows what is good, and yet does evil. 
But the open sinner, though he does wrong in outward a6t, 
may be moved to reconsider his doings, and to repent, and 
to amend his conduct. 


THE CONTEXT. 

The parable is closely connected with the preceding con¬ 
text. After Jesus had cast the mercenary traders out of the 
temple, the chief priests and elders of the people came to 
Him, and demanded His authority for his adfion. Then 
Jesus confused them, with a question as to the authority of 
John, the Baptist. And, in their baffled and confused state, 
He spoke to them three parables, which form a connected 
group ; that is, the parable of our text, followed by the par¬ 
able of the Wicked Husbandmen, and that of the Marriage 
of the King’s Son. 

In these three parables, the Lord showed the chief priests 
and elders, and the Pharisees, their own evil condition. In 
the first, He exhibited their hypocrisy; in the second, their in¬ 
tended malicious treatment of Himself, as a Saviour; and, in 



The Two Sons. 


95 


the third, their miserable end, because of their rejection of 
His Divine influence. 


THE TWO SONS. 

“A man had two sons.” This “man” is the Lord, the 
Divine Man. And the “two sons” are two classes of men. 

The Lord, in His teachings, often speaks of two men, or 
two women, to bring in pointed contrast the two classes of 
men, the good and the evil; or, in some cases, the spiritual- 
minded and the natural-minded; or, again, the repenting 
and the unrepenting. 

THE lord’s COMING AND SAYING. 

That the man “came to” his two sons, refers to the com¬ 
ing of the Lord, Himself, in the Divine Humanity. The 
“coming” is an operation of the Divine Love, in adapting 
its manifestations to human conditions. 

And the man “ said ” certain things to his sons. “ Saying ” 
is the operation of the Divine Wisdom, in teaching men the 
truth. Thus, “came” refers to the Divine aCtion upon the 
will of the man ; and “said” refers to the Lord’s aCtion upon 
the understanding of the man. “Came and said” indicate 
the combined action of the Lord upon the man’s will, or 
heart, and his understanding, or intellect. 

The Lord always “comes” when He “says,” or speaks, 
anything to a man. He does not coldly teach men, from a 
distance, and thus leave men in doubt, or indifference, be¬ 
cause of the lack of any moving of their affeCtions. When¬ 
ever the light of truth, like a ray of sunlight, comes to a 
man’s intellect, that ray always carries, within it, the warmth 
of the Divine Love, ready to move the affections of every 
heart that is open to the truth. Coldness and indifference, 
where they exist, are always on the part of the man. 


196 


Parables of the New Testament. 


THE VINEYARD. 

The lord “came” to the first son, and “said,” “Son, go 
work, to-day, in my vineyard.” In an extended sense, the 
Lord’s vineyard is the Church. But, in a personal sense, 
the individual vineyard is the understanding of the man, the 
intellect, in which the work of truth is done, and by which 
the affections are enlightened and trained. 

That which especially characterizes man, as distinguished 
from the lower animals, is his rationality, his ability to think, 
spiritually and naturally. Changes in a man’s character are 
made by means of his rational understanding of the princi¬ 
ples of truth, applied to his conduCt. 

Thus the Lord’s vineyard is in the man’s mind, in his 
understanding. As the light of truth comes to the man, it 
is the man’s duty to hear, to understand, and to carry out, 
that truth; and his work is to oppose every evil feeling, and 
every false thought, and every sinful aCI, and to encourage 
every good feeling, true thought, and useful aCt. 

TO-DAY. 

And the Lord always direCls men to work “to-day,” be¬ 
cause to-day spiritually means man’s present condition. 
And every work must be begun, and carried on, when we 
see its need. For, if we did not go to work now, in our 
present state of life, we should not be able to change our 
chara&er and state. 

In every mental state, it is the work which is done in 
that state, that induces the next state of feeling and thought. 
The only way to rise to higher conditions, is to work upon 
ourselves, as we are, and thus prepare ourselves to rise to 
better states. So, all the. commandments of our Lord are in 
the present tense; they are all to be applied now. When¬ 
ever a man is able to understand a Divine commandment, 
that commandment speaks to him, now; and it says to him, 
“ Go work, to-day.” 


The Two Sons. 


197 


The moment we comprehend a spiritual principle, we are 
in condition to apply that principle to our daily life. It 
speaks to every man, each in his degree of enlightenment; 
and each man can obey the principle, as he undestands it. 
And his obedience to his present understanding of the prin¬ 
ciple is the means of rising to higher and profounder com¬ 
prehension of it. 


THE ETERNAL DAY. 

In another sense, “to-day” denotes forever, because, if a 
man is regenerate, his day extends through eternity. “ For 
there is no night there,” in the heavenly condition. 

Thus, in working to-day, we are not to suppose that we 
shall soon be done with all the necessary work. We must 
work “while it is day.” And to the regenerate man, it is 
always day. But, while, in our earthly life, we must labor 
against evil inclinations, yet, in heaven, work will not be hard 
labor, but only delightful activity. 

Therefore, when we begin to work in the Lord’s vine¬ 
yard, (either in the extended sense, of the Church, or in the 
individual sense, of our own intellect and life,) we must enter 
upon our work with the understanding that it is to be car¬ 
ried on at once, and forever, and until it ceases to be irksome, 
and comes to be delightful. 

THE GENERAL MEANING. 

In a general sense, the Lord’s object, in the parable, was 
to exhibit the conditions of two classes of men, the Gentiles 
and the Jews; and, of course, at the same time, to display 
the real conditions of all men, in all times, whose character¬ 
istics should be similar. 

The first son was, in the beginning, rebellious, but he 
afterwards repented, and obeyed his father. The second 
son promised to obey, but secretly disobeyed. 


198 


Parables of the New Testament. 


THE HISTORICAL APPLICATION. 

Historically, the first son represented the Gentiles, who 
outwardly disobeyed the Lord, because they did not under¬ 
stand His teaching; but when they were brought to under¬ 
stand the Lord, they obeyed Him. 

The second son represented the Jews, who, while ac¬ 
knowledging their allegiance to the Divine Word, and 
having the written Word in their keeping, still only pre¬ 
tended to keep its literal precepts, while, as to its spirit, they 
actually hated it, and opposed it, in their hearts. 

WILL AND UNDERSTANDING. 

In the Gentiles, as in the first son, the will w r as better 
than the understanding; but, in the Jews, as in the second 
son, the understanding was better than the will. The first 
son was in need of intelligence; but the second son was in 
want of sincerity of heart. The second son was a hypo¬ 
crite, making false professions, and profaning the letter of 
the Word. But those who do not understand the Word, 
cannot profane it; and, therefore, they are more easily brought 
to repentance, by the opening of their intelligence. 

Thus the first son, in the general sense, represents those 
who, as Gentiles, do not understand their duty, but who 
obey the truth, when they understand it. But the second 
son represents those who, like the Jews, have the Word, and 
understand its precepts of life, but are not, in heart, disposed 
to do their duty. 

Each of these classes is called to work in the Lord’s vine¬ 
yard ; i. e., to be regenerated; to plant and cultivate the 
seeds of truth, in their Understanding, and in their daily life. 
The first son said what he should not have said, but he did 
what he should have done. And, as saying is from the un¬ 
derstanding, and doing is from the will, thus we see that 
representatively, his trouble was with his understanding. 
But the second son said what was right, but he did what was 


The Two Sons. 


199 


wrong; and so his trouble was with his will. He was en¬ 
lightened, but hypocritical. 

And how powerfully this parable rebuked the self-right¬ 
eous priests and Pharisees, by contrasting their enlightened 
hypocrisy with the better condition of the ignorant, but well- 
disposed Gentiles. 


GENTILES. 

The Gentiles are those who, in thought, oppose the Di¬ 
vine will, and the leadings of Providence, but who, inwardly, 
do not really oppose what they believe to be good and true. 
And when they are enlightened, and come to a<5f from their 
real will, they do right. Not knowing the real meaning of 
the Divine Word, they have many thoughts and ideas which 
are not in agreement with it But, when they rationally see 
the truth of the Word, they follow its teachings. 

MODERN GENTILES 

Any intelligent and observing New-Churchman can see . 
that this is the condition of many men, at the present time, 
who are not connected with any church. 

The exaltation of faith above charity; the teaching of 
the false and superficial doctrines of “Justification by Faith 
Alone,” and the “ Vicarious Atonement;” have so emptied 
men’s minds of the pure light of heavenly truth, that many 
men are put in a false position before the world. 

Thinking men, in opposing irrational and superficial 
dogmas, which ascribe to the God of Love a most unlovely 
character, are generally forced to appear before the world 
as opposing the Lord’s Church; while the fa6t is, that they 
are opposing wrong presentations of truth, false doctrines, 
which have placed the Lord, and His Church, in a false 
light before men. These men are Gentiles, who oppose, not 
the true God, nor the real Church, but only the false gods, 
and the corrupted Church, held up before their view. 


200 


Parables of the New Testament . 


IGNORANT OPPOSITION. 

And, of course, as the Church became corrupted, and 
the Lord’s Word falsified, men became more and more ig¬ 
norant ; and in opposing what they did not understand, they 
also opposed much that was really good and true. And 
further enlightenment in genuine truth, will reach their 
deeper will, and lead them to repentance and reformation. 

And this is the work of the New-Church, to teach genu¬ 
ine truth; to open the Divine Word in its inward and spirit¬ 
ual meaning; and thus to enlighten men, and to restore 
them to the Lord, and to His Church. And those who have 
been intellectually mistaken, but well-disposed, (though, like 
the first son in the parable, they seem rebellious against the 
new truth,) when the light reaches their rationality, will re¬ 
pent, and go to work in the Lord’s, vineyard. 

WILFUL OPPOSITION 

But those who, having the Lord’s Word, are inwardly 
disposed to evil, will not accept the new truth. The clearer 
the truth, the more they will praCtically oppose it, as the 
Jews did to Jesus; the more He spoke against their evils, 
the less they desired to repent, and the more they plotted to 
destroy Him. 

When the Lord had spoken the parable, He asked the 
chief-priests and elders, “whether of the twain did the will 
of his father?” And they, of course, had to answer, “The 
first.” 

The Lord has given every man the rational ability to see 
the practical truth of His Word. Of course, men need in¬ 
struction, for enlightenment. But when they are properly 
instructed in plain truth, if they are well-disposed towards 
the truth, they will repent, and go to work, to live by the 
truth. 


The Two Sons. 


201 


INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL. 

Now, there is another sense, in which the parable is very 
practical. There are two sides to human character, the in¬ 
ternal and the external, the spiritual and the natural. In 
the regenerate man, these two sides acT together, as one; 
for the inward and outward characters are in harmony, both 
being good and true. And so, in the confirmedly evil char¬ 
acter, the inward and the outward phases of character are in 
agreement; for both are evil and false. 

And yet the evil man may put on an appearance of out¬ 
ward goodness. He may keep the letter of the Divine law, 
in outward act, while he breaks the spirit of the law, in his 
secret intentions. His mere external is better than his in¬ 
ternal ; his outward conduct is better than his heart. But 
there are others, whose internal is better than their external. 
They are regenerating, but they have not yet brought their 
external mind under control. Such a man will have some 
inward disposition to be good, and to do right, while, at the 
same time, his natural mind will be full of hereditary inclina¬ 
tions to evil. He will be a double character; not like the 
hypocrite, with intentional duplicity, but with a sincere double¬ 
ness. 

That is, when he feels and thinks in and from his inward 
consciousness, in his spirit, he will be disposed to love and 
do what is good, true and useful. But, when he goes down 
into his outward, natural mind, and feels and thinks from 
his hereditary inclinations to evils, he will be opposed to 
what is good. He is, as it were, two different men, at differ¬ 
ent times. Everyone who is trying to be regenerated has 
experienced these different conditions of mind. 

THE TWO CLASSES. 

Now, the parable brings up the question of the conditions 
of these two classes of men ; first, those who, in outward life, 
break the letter of the Divine law, and yet who repent, and 


202 Parables of the New Testament. 

amend their lives, and are regenerated ; and second, those 
who, while outwardly pretending to keep the law, are, in 
spirit, opposed to the spirit of the truth, and who are not 
willing to repent, nor to amend their lives. 

And the parable teaches us that outward infirmities of 
character, though evil, are not so profoundly and fixedly evil, 
as a corrupt disposition of the will, even when the latter is 
joined with an apparently orderly outward life. 

In the first case, the internal is better than the external; 
and the internal will finally control the external; but, in the 
second case, the external is better than the internal; and, 
therefore, the external is hypocritical, not being from the 
heart. 

In the first case, heaven and hell are struggling for the 
mastery of the man; but, in the second case, hell is in full 
control; and the orderly external is merely assumed to de¬ 
ceive, as the wolf puts on the clothing of the sheep. 

REMAINS. 

In the first son, the “remains,” or states of good, stored 
up in the man’s inward mind, by the Lord, were not closed 
up by evils of the will; and so, by these “ remains,” the 
Lord could operate, to bring the man to repentance. But, 
in the case of the second son, his evils of the heart, volun¬ 
tarily made his own by life, had choked his “remains,” and 
defeated the Divine influence. 

The first son repented ; and, with repentance, and a new 
heart, came a new life. But, with the second son, there was 
no repentance, no new heart, and hence no new life. The 
second son was as a “whited sepulchre,” appearing well, 
outside, but, within, full of death and corruption. “ Not 
everyone that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the 
kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father 
who is in heaven.” 

The first son is one who speaks against the Son of Man, 
or the letter of the Word, or external truth ; but the second 


The Two Sons. 


203 


son is one who speaks against the Holy Spirit, the interior 
truth, the spirit of the Word. 

JOHN AND JESUS. 

Jesus said to the chief priests and elders, “ Verily I say 
unto you, that the publicans and the harlots go into the 
kingdom of heaven before you. For John came unto you 
in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not; but 
the publicans and the harlots believed him ; and ye, when 
ye had seen, repented not afterwards, that ye might believe 
him.” 

John the Baptist represented the Word in the letter, call¬ 
ing men to repentance in the conduCt. The baptism of John 
was Jewish baptism, not Christian ; it called men to return 
to the law, as taught in the letter of the Word, and by the 
prophets of Israel. 

But the baptism of Jesus was more interior; it reached 
beyond the conduCt and the external, and taught repentance 
as to motives, as to the will and understanding, lying within 
the conduct. Those Jews who received John, and who 
amended their conduCt, thus formed a base on which to build 
up a new character, in the baptism of Jesus. Thus John 
prepared the way for Jesus. But those who did not receive 
John, and did not amend their lives by the Jewish standard, 
the external, did not receive Jesus. For the man who will 
not reform his life, has no base to support regeneration. But 
even those who were in gross external disorder, if they 
heeded the call of John, or the letter of the Word, could 
come to regeneration, at the call of Jesus. 

THE PUBLICANS AND HARLOTS. 

The publicans were the collectors of the Roman revenue, 
when the Jews were under subjection to the Romans. And, 
naturally, the publicans were hated and despised by the Jews. 
Matthew was a publican. Publicans represented the Gentiles. 


204 Parables of the New Testament. 

Harlots, being in sin, represent those who love falses. 
These persons were not always hardened offenders, but, of¬ 
ten, were young women, who had fallen into outward a6ls 
of sin, without knowing, or reflecting upon, the iniquity of 
such a life. And, at the preaching of John the Baptist, 
many, both of the publicans and of the harlots, repented, 
and amended their conduct. They went into the kingdom 
of God; i. e., they reformed their lives, and thus became 
able to receive spiritual truth, and to be regenerated. 

THE PHARISEES, ETC. 

But even the repentance and amendment of the despised 
and outcast publicans and harlots, did not induce the har¬ 
dened and hypocritical priests and Pharisees to repent, or 
sincerely to amend their lives. So, in our minds, if we are 
inwardly evil, when we see the operation of the truth upon 
others, or see what it would do for us, we shall not make 
any effort to repent. Jesus spoke of the Scribes and Phari¬ 
sees as those who “say, and do not.” “This people draweth 
nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoreth Me with 
their lips, but their heart is far from Me.” 

The Pharisees were wearing broad phylaCteries, and 
making long prayers in public places, and offering many 
sacrifices, and yet inwardly, they were full of evil, and of 
malignant anger towards the Lord. “Wo unto you, Scribes 
and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye pay tithe of mint, and 
anise, and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters 
of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith; these ought ye to 
have done, and not to leave the other undone.” Of such a 
man the Lord says, “Thou hast a name that thou livest, 
and art dead.” 

The great obstacle to repentance, in the Pharisee, in his 
self-righteousness. By an outwardly orderly life, he hides 
his real and profound evils, even from himself. External 
evils are more superficial, and more readily seen. So it is 
easier for an open sinner to see his sins, and to repent, than 


The Tzvo Sons. 


205 


for a pretended saint. Contempt of others, and self-right¬ 
eousness, harden the heart against both God and man, and 
close the mind against the higher aspe<5ts of truth. 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Thus, for instance, a hasty temper, though bad, is less evil 
than a malignant disposition, which, under a smooth external, 
hides deadly hatred, envy and revenge. 

Sometimes the Lord allows a man to fall into adtual and 
gross sins, in order that he may see himself to be a sinner, 
and may repent, and be regenerated; when, without outward 
a< 5 ts of known sin, the man might fall into the greater sin of 
self-righteousness. 

But, both the sons in the parable needed repentance. 
And so did the Gentiles and the Jews, and the publicans and 
harlots, and the Pharisees and priests. Let no man pride 
himself in the fa< 5 t that he is an open sinner, and not a hypo¬ 
crite. Every man needs to repent. Because a man is not a 
hypocrite is no proof that he is not full of other evils; be¬ 
cause he is not tending towards the worst hell, is no evidence 
that his evils are not carrying him to some hell. 

Publicans and harlots did not go into heaven because 
they were not hypocrites, but because they repented, and 
ceased to do evil, in any way. Sincerity is not enough, with¬ 
out regeneration. Sincere sinners are neither hypocrites nor 
angels. But they are not working in the Lord’s vineyard. 
And He calls them to work, by repentance and reformation ; 
to learn the truth, to love it, and to do it. 

IMPULSIVENESS. 

There is, in the parable, a good warning to impulsive 
persons, who speak from their external thought, without 
refledling. They often feel rebellious, and say, “ I will not,” 
when they really will. And if they would only acquire the 


2 o 6 Parables of the Neiv Testament. 

habit of inwardly thinking before speaking, they would see 
that they would finally conquer their external thoughts and 
feelings, and would a 61 from better inward feelings and 
thoughts. Let them remember that they need repentance. 
Let them keep the door of their mouth while their external 
minds are rebellious. And then they will be able to change 
their external ways. 


OUR OWN WORK. 

There is no other part of the Lord’s vineyard in which 
it is so important for us to work, as that which is included in 
our own minds. Here we can help to do the Lord’s work 
better than any one else can do it for us. When we love 
good and truth, inwardly, and practice them in our outward 
life, then our Lord’s will shall be done on the earth of our 
natural man, as it is done in the heaven of our regenerating 
spirit. 


The Wicked Husbandmen. 


207 


XV. 

€f)C IDichcb Dusliantmicn. 

(MATTHEW XXI. 33-43.) 

THE REJECTION OF DIVINE TRUTH. 


SUMMARY. 

Those who do not love the truth, finally reject it from 
their minds and lives. And the more it displays its char¬ 
acter, the more persistently they reject it, and resist its 
influence. And, therefore, in the judgment, such men 
must spiritually perish, because they have no inward 
grasp upon the truth; and, the more their minds are 
developed in their characteristic quality, the more they 
will be opposed to the Divine truth; until, finally, they 
will reject it even from their memory. 

THE HOUSEHOLDER. 

The householder is the Lord; and His house, or 
dwelling-place, is in the mind of each individual man. 
“If a man love Me, he will keep My words; and My 
Father will love him ; and We will come unto him, and 
make Our abode with him. ,, 

THE VINEYARD. 

Vines represent truths, growing in the mind. The 
Lord, as the Divine Truth, calls Himself “the true Vine.” 
The vineyard is, then, in a general sense, the Church, 



208 Parables of the New Testament. 

where the truth is planted, and where it grows, and bears 
fruit in a good life. Personally, the Lord’s vineyard is 
set up in the man’s understanding, where the truths of 
the Lord’s Word are planted. 

When the Church is represented by a vineyard, all 
the things of the Church, the knowledge, intelligence and 
wisdom, in the men of the Church, are implanted by the 
Lord, as a man plants the vines in a vineyard. 

THE HEDGE. 

“And hedged it round about.” The hedge served as 
a fence, for protection, and for separating one field from 
another. For the vineyard in man’s mind needs pro¬ 
tection from the man’s own sensuous nature, as well as 
from the evil influences of others. “The boar out of the 
wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth 
devour it.” 

These green, living hedges, which proteCt the growth 
of truth in our minds, are the literal precepts of life, such 
as the Ten Commandments. These commandments, as 
laws of conduCt, are our best protection against the 
attacks of evil influences. So the whole of the letter of 
the Lord’s Word is a guard, a hedge, or protection, to 
the inward truths of the spiritual sense of the Scriptures. 
“The world, the flesh, and the devil,” are always prowling 
about our mental vineyard, and seeking to break into it, 
and to destroy it. 

And the hedge not only protects, but also distin¬ 
guishes and separates one field from another. And so, 
in the regenerating mind, there must be order and arrange¬ 
ment of principles. We must learn to put the various 
kinds of good and truth in their proper places, in our 
love, and in our thought. Some things are more import¬ 
ant than others And some things are ends, some are 
causes, and some are effeCts. 

When we learn to make an orderly arrangement of 


The Wicked Husbandmen. 


2og 


mental principles, then the knowledges from the Word, 
which we use in doing this, are the mental hedges, which 
distinguish and separate one mental field from another. 
And, in faCt, much of our spiritual protection depends 
upon our clear and rational distinction between different 
principles. 


SPIRITUAL ORDER. 

As we put the Lord first, the neighbor next, and self 
last, we proteCt ourselves from the dangers of unregenerate 
life, in which the heavenly order is inverted, and the dis¬ 
order of the hells is established, with self first, and the 
Lord last. 

Evil spirits always try to confuse our minds, in our 
distinguishing of good from evil, and of truth from falsity, 
in the practical life. But “knowledge is power.” 

Observe the mind that has no clear distinction of prin¬ 
ciples ; that does not know what the Lord is, and who 
He is, and what He teaches; that does not distinguish 
between its sensuous impulses and the promptings of 
guardian angels ; and you will find that mind open to attack 
from all sorts of evil influences and false notions. Like 
a weather-cock, it is moved by every wind, and has no 
fixed position of its own. It does not affirm anything. 

But the positive, affirmative mind, with clear knowl¬ 
edge of distinctions, is on its defence against the sugges¬ 
tions of evil spirits. It distinguishes the quality of such 
influences, and hence knows their source. By carefully 
discriminating between what is of the Lord, and regen¬ 
erate, and what is of self, and unregenerate; and what 
belongs to heaven, and what to earth, we are fore-warned, 
and thus fore-armed. We can see the enemy’s real char¬ 
acter, in spite of his pretences; we discover the wolf be¬ 
hind the sheep’s clothing. And this distinguishing of 
principles must be made in the daily life of conduCt, as 
well as in the affeCtion and thought; for where there is 


210 Parables of the New Testament. 

no clear rational discriminating of principles, the mind 
becomes confused as to good and evil; and then there is 
no practical and thorough separation from evil; and, 
hence, no thorough purification of the life. There is no 
sound hedge, for prote&ion. 

In just such things you may read the history of every 
general Church on the earth. So long as its members 
retained a clear, rational and practical distinction between 
principles, especially between good and evil, the Church 
flourished. But, as the world cast its sensuous influences 
upon the Church, and gradually and cunningly weakened 
the minds of the members by indulgence, clear rational 
distinctions were lost, and confused in practical appli¬ 
cation ; and then the members made idols of non-essential 
matters, and disputed over outward forms, while they 
allowed the inward spirit of religion to die out. 

Thus, as the hedge is essential to the protection of 
the vineyard, so the discrimination of principles, by the 
Lord’s commandments, is essential to the safety of our 
mental vineyard. 


THE WINE-PRESS. 

Then the householder “digged a wine-press in it;” 
i. e. } he dug a place for the wine-press, and set up the 
press, for future use. The Lord, as the Householder, 
prepares the man’s mind for his future work, in the at¬ 
tainment of spiritual life. The wine-press is used to sep¬ 
arate the juice of the grapes from the pulp and skin. In 
our mental life, our works are the grapes, or fruits of 
the truth sown in our mental vineyard; that is, in our 
natural understanding. 

If our works are good, they will yield the clear juice 
of spiritual truth. For a man learns spiritual truth by 
doing the natural truth; i. e., the truth, being carried 
out to good fruits, yields its spirit. “ If any man will do 
His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of 


The Wicked Husbandmen . 


211 


God.” A man, by the examination of the spirit and 
quality of his works, sees the spiritual truth that is em¬ 
bodied in them. This examining is using the wine-press. 
It is drawing out the very spirit and essence of his 
works. 

The wine-press, itself, is the rational faculty, the think¬ 
ing principle of our mind, in which there is a pressure, or 
struggle, to develop the character, or spirit, of our doings. 
Using the wine-press represents considering our works, 
in the light of the Lord’s Word; separating the inward 
spirit and motive from the outward a< 5 t. 

We need to beware of feeling satisfied with the out¬ 
ward form of the a< 5 l; and we need to examine the mo¬ 
tive, as to whether it is heavenly or worldly; whether our 
works are wrought in God, or in self. “ He that doeth 
truth, cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made 
manifest, that they are wrought in God.” Grapes are 
not wine. So, the outward good fruits of the truth are 
different from the spiritual truth which may be drawn 
from them. 


THE TOWER. 

The householder “built a tower” in the vineyard. 
The tower was for observation, and for defence. While 
the grapes were ripening, a watchman was placed in the 
tower, to observe the approach of any enemy, or wild 
beast; that any stealing, or any injury to the vineyard, 
might be resisted. And, at times, there was need of 
the fortified tower as a prote&ion, and a place of retreat, 
in case of attack. 

The essentials of such a tower are that it shall be ele¬ 
vated, to give a large field of observation, and that it 
shall be strong, for defence. 

The tower represents interior truth, truth elevated 
above the surface of things, and yielding a higher point 
of spiritual thought, and, hence, greater prote&ion and 


212 Parables of the New Testament. 

defence from attack. In an elevated state of thought, 
the rational mind is a watchman, which comprehends the 
state of things, and sees the approaching dangers of sens¬ 
uous life. The tower was built of stones, representing 
truths from the letter of the Word, interiorly understood. 
Truths are lifted out of the memory, and above external 
thought, when they are taken up into the understanding, 
and into the heart. 

i 

ILLUSTRATION. 

It is a great advantage* to see the coming of evil be¬ 
fore it reaches us. For instance ; something has been said 
that has begun to stir up our bad temper. After our bad 
temper has been aroused, we justify ourselves, by saying 
that the other person made us angry. But, in our anger, 
we go further than we first intended. We do evil. Now, 
suppose we had set our spiritual intelligence on the high 
tower of interior truth, to watch our spiritual vineyard. 
Our intelligence would hav.e seen our temper coming up ; 
and would have known that it would go too far. And, 
being fore-warned of its approach, we could have been 
ready to put it down. 

Thus, interior truth, truth seen and known in its 
spirit and motive, enables us to maintain a watchful sur¬ 
vey of our whole life, and to observe our dangerous 
states, as they arise. Our tower is elevated, to give us 
observation and warning ; and it is strong, to retreat into, 
in case of need. For there are times when a man’s 
sensuous thoughts are confused, and when he needs the 
prote&ion of well-known spiritual truths. “Watch and 
pray, lest ye enter into temptation; the spirit, indeed, is 
willing, but the flesh is weak.’’ “The name of the Lord 
is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it, and 
is safe.” 


The Wicked Husbandmen. 


213 


LETTING OUT THE VINEYARD. 

The householder, having made ready his vineyard, 
put it to use; he let it out to husbandmen. By letting 
out, the lessee takes the property, to use it, according to 
the terms of the lease; but not to abuse it. So is it in 
the human mind, and in the Church. In each man’s 
mind, the Lord prepares a vineyard, and lets it out to 
the man, to use, to enjoy, but not to abuse, nor to claim 
as absolutely his own. The principles of the Church are 
taught to men, and, as far as possible, implanted in men’s 
minds. And we can use them, according to the terms 
of the lease. These terms are the Ten Commandments. 
Under these Commandments, we have a right to take, use, 
and enjoy, all mental land and vines, all the good and 
the truths of the Church. 

But, in using them, without abuse, we must acknowl¬ 
edge them to be the Lord’s. And then, when we live in 
love, wisdom and obedience, we render to the Lord of 
the fruits of His vineyard. But, if we regard these 
Divine principles as our own, and forget our allegiance to 
the Lord, and decline to render Him an account of our 
occupation and use of them, we commit spiritual rob¬ 
bery. 

The householder letting out his vineyard, represents, 
then, the Lord communicating truth to men, through His 
Holy Word, and thus preparing the men for the works 
of spiritual life. So, in the allegory of Eden, the Lord 
placed Adam and Eve in a garden, “to dress it and to keep 
it’ i. e ., to use it, to keep it in order, and to protedl it 
from injury, so that it might continue to bring forth the 
fruits of love, wisdom and holiness. 

THE MAN’S WORK. 

In this work, a man can, spiritually, as the husband¬ 
man can, literally, prepare the ground, plant the seed, 


214 


Parables of the New Testament. 


take care of the growing crop, and gather the harvest. 
But he cannot make the seed, nor produce the growth. 
He can, diligently and faithfully, use the means that the 
Lord provides. And, at the same time, he can humbly 
acknowledge his dependence upon the Lord, without 
whom men can do nothing. For the Lord not only 
gives us the means, but He gives us, also, the ability to 
use the means, and He sustains our strength, in that 
use. 


GOING TO A FAR COUNTRY. 

But, as we do our adlual work, we seem to a£t from 
our own ability. The Lord’s agency does not manifestly 
appear; He seems far away. We seem left to ourselves. 
This is what is meant by the householder going ‘ ‘ into a 
far country,” after letting out the vineyard. Places re¬ 
present states of mind. We receive truth in the under¬ 
standing, especially when the understanding is elevated, 
and open to the light of the Lord’s Word. But the 
actual use of the truth is in the pradlical doings of natu¬ 
ral life, when the outward thought is engaged. 

THE lord’s RETURN. 

But, as'we bring the truth into our a< 5 ls, and bear the 
fruits of the truth, and secure adlual good from the truth, 
these good fruits seem to recall the Lord. Thus the 
Lord is not near to man in the mere form of truth, but 
in the life of truth. 

As we work in our own name, the Lord seems at a 
distance, gone “into a far country,” because our state of 
mind is far removed from Him. Spiritual nearness and 
remoteness are in character, and not in space, alone. 
“The Lord is nigh unto all that call upon Him; to all 
that call upon Him in truth.” And yet it is said of the 
evil man, “God is not in all his thoughts.” Evil is self- 


The Wicked Husbandmen. 


215 


ish; and it separates men from the Lord. “Your iniqui¬ 
ties have separated between you and your God, and your 
sins have hid His face from you.” 

We cannot see the sun, except in the light of the sun. 
In fa< 5 l, we could not have known of the existence of the 
sun, except from its own light. So, we cannot see the 
Lord’s presence, in our mind, except in the light of the 
Lord’s own truth, communicated to us. Therefore, the 
more we look to the Lord, the more light we have. And 
the truths in our mind will thus be brought to good fruit. 
And, as the mental fruit ripens in goodness, the Lord 
seems to draw nearer and nearer, because we draw nearer 
to Him. 


THE TIME OF FRUIT. 

Thus, the time of the fruit draws near. Fruits must 
be formed, increased, and ripened. There are successive 
stages of growth. As the sun ripens the fruit, so the 
Lord, as the Sun of Righteousness, a6ts upon our men¬ 
tal fruits, and ripens them. And their quality will depend 
upon our inward motives. The time of fruit comes, 
when the truth, received into the understanding, begins 
to influence the will, and thus to come out into practical 
good works. 

Every man’s fruits are of the same charatSter as him¬ 
self; “for the tree is known by its fruit.” All men bear 
some kind of fruit. Often, in outward appearance, the 
works of evil men resemble those of good men. But 
their quality is different. And the quality of the grapes 
will show, when they pass through the wine-press. The 
sweetness, or bitterness, will be in the juice. When the 
principles planted in our mental vineyard begin to bear 
pra< 5 tical fruit in good works, then we begin to get mes¬ 
sages from the Lord, claiming His share in these good 
fruits. 


2 16 


Parables of the New Testament. 


THE SERVANTS. 

He sends his servants, that they may “receive the 
fruits. ’ ’ These servants of the householder are the truths 
of the Lord’s Word, which teach us our relation to the 
Lord. When any truth, planted in our understanding, 
begins to influence our will, and to bear fruit in our prac¬ 
tical life, the Lord sends certain truths of His Word, to 
remind us that the good we have now acquired is not our 
own, but His; that we must acknowledge His ownership 
of our mental vineyard, and our accountability to Him 
for our use of it. 

In a historical sense, the servants of the Lord are the 
prophets and teachers whom He has sent, in all the ages, 
to call men to the remembrance of their dependence upon 
the Divine Life. In a sense abstracted from persons, the 
servants are the truths which the prophets taught; “as 
He taught by the mouth of His holy prophets, which 
have been since the world began.” And it is literally 
true that men, the Jews, especially, beat, killed, and 
stoned, these prophets, personally, as men; and they 
spiritually persecuted the truths which the prophets taught 
from the Lord. 

The good that is in our works depends not upon their 
quantity, but on their quality. We may not claim heaven 
by the multitude of our good works ; for, the moment we 
claim heaven, we claim our works as our own ; and as 
we do this, we take all the heavenly quality out of 
them. 


ABUSING THE SERVANTS. 

But, as the selfish man performs works that are good 
in form, he does them in his own name. And then, as 
he sees and comprehends the truths of the Lord’s Word, 
which demand of him an acknowledgment of the Lord, 
he rejeCts such truths. He takes these servants of the 


The Wicked Husbandmen. 


217 


Lord, and beats them, kills them, and stones them. 
When the truth is separated from the Lord, the life is 
taken away from the truth, in the mind which separates 
it. Truth that we claim as our own, is defiled by our 
evils of self-love. 

BEATING, KILLING AND STONING. 

To beat the servant, here means to pervert the truth, 
by our evils of life. To kill a servant, is to deprive the 
truth of life, by separating it from love, and from practi¬ 
cal uses. To stone the servant, is to falsify the truth, by 
wresting it from its true sense and spirit, and applying it 
to favor our evils. For a stone, in a good sense, repre¬ 
sents natural truth; but, in a bad sense, it represents 
truth falsified, and made false, to the mind, by a false ap¬ 
plication of it. When the Israelites stoned the prophets, 
they represented what they were mentally doing, in falsi¬ 
fying the truths which the prophets taught from the 
Lord. 


OTHER SERVANTS. 

“Again, he sent other servants, more than the first; 
and they did unto them likewise.” In the Divine Mercy 
of the Lord, He still seeks to help men, even in spite of 
their persistent iniquity. The Lord always readjusts 
our spiritual circumstances to our spiritual needs. If we 
resist Him, in one way, He comes to us in another way, 
seeking to save us. He gives us every opportunity to re¬ 
pent and amend. 

It has been so in every dispensation of the general 
Church, and it is so in the life of every individual man. 
The Divine Word is read, and preached, “line upon 
line, and precept upon precept; here a little and there a 
little.” Servant after servant is sent to us, with messages 
from our Lord, calling for the fruit of the vineyard. If 


218 Parables of the New Testament. 

simple truths do not reach us, more profound truths are 
sent to us; truths more penetrating ; truths in different 
phases and aspedls. 

And yet, if we do not love the truth, we go on reject¬ 
ing it, in every form ; for, in every form, it rebukes our 
evils. He who voluntarily breaks one of the command¬ 
ments, spiritually breaks them all. They are as a chain ; 
if you break one link, you break the chain. He who in¬ 
tentionally rejedls one known truth, rejects the spirit of 
all truths ; and rejects the Lord, Himself, who is the Di¬ 
vine Truth. All truths are similar in spirit; for they are 
all Divine. And he who hates one truth, hates all; for 
he hates the Divine spirit of truth. He does likewise to 
all these servants of the Lord. 

THE SON. 

No wonder, then, that the wicked husbandmen rejected 
even the son of the householder, when they had rejedled 
his servants. “Last of all, he sent unto them his son, 
saying, They will reverence my son.” If there is any¬ 
thing in a man to which the truth can appeal, surely the 
Lord, Jesus Christ, the Divine Truth incarnate, could 
reach him. The beautiful life of Jesus, and His exalted 
teachings, would reach any heart that can be reached. 

In the coming of Jesus, we have both precept and ex¬ 
ample. But the evil leaders of the Jews were even more 
antagonistic to Jesus, than they were to the truths which 
were taught in the Old Testament. When they saw the 
spirit, or quality, of the Lord, they were aroused to in¬ 
tense hostility to Him, because they saw His antagonism 
to their charadleristic life of evil. “They said among 
themselves [literally, in themselves], This is the heir; 
come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.” 
So, in every evil mind, the inward purpose is to destroy 
the influence of the truth; for, if the truth should estab¬ 
lish itself in their minds, they would be deprived of their 
worldly lusts. 


The Wicked Husbandmen. 


219 


“This is the heir;” i. <?., these are the very conditions 
which receive the Lord, and come into His love and wis¬ 
dom. Evil men reason that, if they can rejedl from their 
minds this state of new life, which is the Lord’s dwelling- 
place, and which is heir to all that the Lord has to give, 
they can claim all the merit of their good works, and 
have no further need to acknowledge any Divine agency 
in their lives. 

Man inherits all his spiritual life from the Lord. And 
that principle, in man, which opens him to the reception 
of heavenly life, is the principle of innocence, coupled 
with humility. But, to the self-exalting mind, nothing 
else is so abhorrent as humble innocence. The self-lover 
makes every effort to crush out any beginning of such a 
principle in his mind. Thus, in the evil man, the exter¬ 
nal mind resists every attempt of the Lord to open the 
man’s interior mind. 


THREE. 

The evil husbandmen three times resisted the will of the 
householder; they resisted the first and the second com¬ 
panies of servants,' and then resisted the son. “Three,” 
as a representative number, denotes fulness, completeness, 
as to truth. Thus, in three times rejecting the truth, 
evil men completely and entirely rejedl it, and confirm 
themselves in the life of opposite false principles. 

CATCHING, CASTING OUT, AND SLAYING. 

The husbandmen “caught [the son] and cast him out 
of the vineyard, and slew him.” To catch him, or take 
him, is to rejedl the truth from the will; to cast him out 
of the vineyard, is to rejeft the truth from the understand¬ 
ing ; and to slay him is to rejedt the truth from the daily 
life. Thus, the evil mind, brought to face the truth, vol¬ 
untarily destroys, in itself, the life and influence of truth, 
and, hence, of all heavenly love. 


220 


Parables of the New Testament. 


I HISTORICAL APPLICATION. 

Historically, the parable relates to the Jews, who had 
the Word of God, and should have lived by it. But 
they rejected the prophets, and the Lord, Himself. And 
the spiritual kingdom was taken away from them, and 
given to the Gentiles. The Lord did not actually take 
away the spiritual kingdom from the Jews, but they 
thrust it away. The Lord never withdraws His love 
from men. Not only are all things good and true and 
useful the gifts of the Lord, to men, but more than this ; 
they are His continued gifts ; and their goodness depends 
on their coming now from the Lord. They cannot be 
separated from the Lord, and preserve their goodness. 
The Lord’s mercies are “new every morning, every eve¬ 
ning new.” “The Lord is good to all, and His tender- 
mercies are over all His works.” He keeps even the 
devils from being worse than they are. 

THE HEIR. 

The Divine Truth, as a son, or outbirth, of the Divine 
Love, is the heir to all things which Divine Love can 
communicate. For good comes to us by means of the 
truth. But, if we reje<5t the Divine Truth, we reject the 
Divine Good that is within the truth. We reje<5t all that 
the truth would enable us spiritually to inherit from our 
Lord. 

The Lord, Himself, as the very Spirit of Truth, is 
what the evil mind rejects, and casts out of its mental 
vineyard, that it may seize the inheritance; that it may 
banish all idea of God, and may claim all good and truth 
as its own; and may, in its own pleasure, so adulterate 
the good, and falsify the truth, that their Divine quality 
will be destroyed ; and that self may be set up as its God. 

Thus the evil man comes to regard his mind, and all 
his faculties, as entirely his own, and without any respons- 


The Wicked Husbandmen. 


22 


ibility to anyone for his use of them. Thus, to “seize 
upon the inheritance,” is to separate the heart, the under¬ 
standing, and the life, from the Lord. Jesus said, “Ye 

which have followed Me, in the regeneration,.shall 

inherit everlasting life.” “The Lord knoweth the days 
of the upright, and their inheritance shall be forever.” 
And, as regeneration unites us with the Lord, the regener¬ 
ate man, and the Church, are often, in the Scriptures, 
called “the inheritance of the Lord.” 

THE CONSEQUENCES. 

After stating the evil actions of the wicked husband¬ 
men, Jesus said, “When the lord, therefore, of the vine¬ 
yard, cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?” 
That is, what will be the result of their own evils? For 
the Lord will not injure them. The punishment of evil 
comes from its own character and conditions, and not 
from the Lord. 

To the evil men, themselves, the penalty seems to 
come from the Lord; for they think, if He had been 
willing, He might have arranged things otherwise, mak¬ 
ing evil always pleasant in its results. But this would 
not be possible. The Lord is good, truth and life. And 
all life, and all joy, must be in and from Him. And, 
necessarily, the man who voluntarily and knowingly sep¬ 
arates himself from the Lord, separates himself from all 
genuine happiness. “If a man abide not in Me, he is 
cast forth as a branch, and is withered.” 

Therefore, when, in the Scriptures, it is said that the 
Lord destroys, or punishes, the wicked, the literal sense 
speaks according to natural appearances, and not accord¬ 
ing to spiritual truth. The Lord teaches us truth, and 
that truth judges us, by our treatment of it. So Jesus 
said, “I judge no man; the Word which I have spoken 
unto you shall judge you.” 

Evil destroys itself. 11 Evil shall slay the wicked. ’ ’ 



222 Parables of the New Testament. 

It is not God that destroys them, but their own wicked¬ 
ness. “The wages of sin is death.” Jesus said, “I 
came not to destroy the world, but to save the world.” 
And yet, though the Lord seeks to give heaven to every 
man, still, evil men cannot receive heaven, because they 
will not; for they persistently reject the only influences 
which form heaven in the human soul. 

TAKING AWAY THE VINEYARD. 

Therefore, necessarily, the vineyard will be taken 
away from the wicked husbandmen, and given to others. 
All who live from the principles of the Lord’s Word, 
which are summed up in the Ten Commandments, will 
be regenerated, and saved from the hell of evil. They 
will shun evils, as sins, and do good. 

But those who do not live by good principles, will not 
be saved; for they will make a hell in their own hearts. 
And, after death, they will voluntarily tends towards hell, 
because they are, inwardly, already in hell, and are not 
willing to be in heaven, because they are not willing to 
live a heavenly life, and thus to form a heavenly character. 
For it is the chara<5ter of the man, and not the place, that 
makes heaven to be heaven. 

Those who will not live by the truth, finally lose even 
the knowledge of truth. Jesus said, “If a man love Me, 
he will keep My words.” So, our love to the Lord 
makes us delight in the words of our Lord. And, as we 
live by the truth, we grow in spiritual intelligence; we 
cultivate the vineyard. “Through Thy commandments, 

Thou hast made me wiser than mine enemies. 

Through Thy precepts I get understanding. Therefore 
every false way do I hate.” “A good understanding 
have all they who do His commandments.” But “from 
him that hath not, shall be taken away even that which 
he seemeth to have.” 


The Wicked Husbandmen. 


223 


SUCCESSIVE CHURCHES. 

In the Divine Providence, whenever a Church has de¬ 
clined, another Church has been raised up, to keep alive 
the vineyard of the Lord. The First Coming of the Lord 
instituted the First Christian Church, after the ruin of 
Judaism. And, about a hundred years ago, as the First 
Christian Church became corrupted in do&rine and in life, 
the Lord made His Second Coming, in spirit, and in the 
truth, in the revealing of the inward, spiritual sense of 
His holy Word. And He instituted the New-Church, 
the Church of the New-Jerusalem, to take up the work in 
His vineyard. And, as the very corner-stone of this New- 
Church, stands the truth of the Divine Humanity of 
Jesus Christ, as one God, in one person, seen in three 
aspects, or manifestations. This is the “stone which the 
builders rejected ” from the Old Theology, but which has 
now “become the head of the corner,” in the New-Jeru¬ 
salem. “O God of hosts, look down from heaven, and 
behold, and visit this vine; and the vineyard which Thy 
right-hand hath planted.” 


224 


Parables of the New Testament . 


XVI. 

€f)c Carriage of t()e fling’? 

(MATTHEW XXII. 2-14.) 

THE REJECTION OF El FINE TRUTH AND GOOD. 


THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 

The kingdom of heaven is the kingdom of love, wis¬ 
dom and usefulness, in the mind and condudf of men. The 
presence of the Lord’s love and wisdom makes heaven in 
men. The “ King ” is Jehovah, the Divine Father, the “ King 
of kings.” And the “Son” is the Divine Humanity. 

MARRIAGE. 

In Jesus Christ, as the one person of the Divine Being, 
there is a marriage of the Divine Love with the Divine 
Wisdom, or, in other words, of the Divine Good with the 
Divine Truth. And, from the Lord, true marriage is in 
men, according to the degree of their regeneration. And 
the Lord’s life is in men, in its integrity, in the degree in 
which there is, in their individual minds, a marriage, or com¬ 
plete union, of truth in their intelledfs with love in their 
hearts. 

In another sense, there is a marriage between the Lord 
and the Church. And so, in the Lord’s Word, He is called 
the “Bridegroom” and the “Husband,” and the Church is 
called the “ Bride ” and the “Wife.” 

The complete marriage of Divine Truth with Divine 
Good, even in the ultimates, or last things, is shown in the 



The Marriage of the King's Son. 225 

glorification of the Divine Humanity of Jesus Christ. And 
this Divine marriage made it possible for fallen men to re¬ 
turn to a state of spiritual marriage, through repentance and 
regeneration. And, as the marriage of good and truth in 
men brings them into a heavenly state of character, so the 
kingdom of heaven is compared to a marriage. For, in 
fa<5t, the kingdom of heaven is a marriage. And no one is 
mentally in heaven until he is in this condition of spiritual 
marriage. Thus, the'spiritual marriage is the re-union of 
the two parts of man’s mind, the will and the understanding, 
which God had joined together, but which man, in his fall, 
put asunder. 


MARRIAGE IN THE WORD. 

The spiritual marriage is indicated in the letter of the 
Lord’s Word, by double expressions, which are very fre¬ 
quent in the Scriptures, and which relate, one to the affec¬ 
tions of the will, and the other to the thoughts of the un¬ 
derstanding. For instance; “ Blessed are they that hunger 
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. ” Hun¬ 
ger refers to a longing for goodness, and thirst refers to a 
seeking for the truth. Thus the Lord’s Word seeks to in¬ 
duce the spiritual marriage in men. 

In a more abstract sense, the “ King” is the Divine Truth 
in the inward, spiritual sense of the Divine Word; and the 
“Son” is the truth in the letter of the Word. Thus the 
Lord unites the spirit and the letter of His holy Word, that 
men may be brought into a spiritual marriage. The Lord 
seeks to unite Himself to men, and men to Himself, that He 
may give them the joys of heavenly life, as a marriage-feast 
to their souls. 


THE LITERAL PICTURE. 

The parable gives us a representative piblure of these 
things. In Oriental countries, great men frequently pro- 


226 Parables of the New Testament. 

vided feasts. A considerable time before the day of the 
feast, servants were sent to invite the guests. Sometimes, 
the exact day and hour were not fixed; but notice was 
given that the guests were expected. Custom included a 
second call, on the day of the feast, when the servants 
would again go around, to notify the guests that everything 
was now ready. The guests having already accepted the 
invitation when first invited, had thus pledged themselves to 
attend the feast, when summoned; 'and to refuse, when 
called, would be to violate their pledged word, and to insult 
the host. 


THE HISTORICAL MEANING. 

So, the coming of the Lord was foretold by the proph¬ 
ets ; and, though the time was not fixed, yet men were in¬ 
vited, and cautioned to prepare themselves for the day of 
His coming, and for the spiritual feast which He should 
bring. And when the Lord was ready to come, He sent 
His servant, John the Baptist, to announce His coming, and 
to summon men to the feast, through repentance and reform¬ 
ation. Thus the Divine King made a marriage-feast for His 
Son; for the Divine Truth is the Son, or outbirth, of the 
Divine Love. 


THE SPIRITUAL MEANING. 

Personally, each of us is called to this feast. The ser¬ 
vants who are sent to invite us, are the truths of the Lord’s 
Word. Every truth teaches us to look to the Lord, in love, 
faith and obedience. All persons who hear, or read, the 
truth of the Lord’s Word, are thus invited to the marriage- 
feast, in which love and wisdom, or good and truth, shall 
be united in men’s minds and lives. 

But, “they would not come;” literally, “they were not 
willing to come.” Men were in sensuous states of merely 
natural affections, and were not willing to enter into spirit- 


The Marriage of the King's So?i. 227 

ual-minded states. The difficulty was with their will. They 
abused their free-will. They had the power to repent and 
to reform, but they had not the inclination; they were not 
disposed to be spiritual-minded. 

HISTORICAL APPLICATION. 

Historically, those who received the invitation of the 
holy Word, and who would not go to the spiritual feast, were 
the Jews, who had the letter of the Word, but who rejected 
the Lord Jesus Christ, although He came in fulfilment of 
the prophecies of the Word. The Jews had been invited 
to the feast; and they had accepted the invitation, and 
looked forward to the coming of the Messiah. 

And when He came, and sent out His apostles, as serv¬ 
ants, to call the Jews to the feast, they declined to attend. 
They did not desire the kind of a feast which Jesus pro¬ 
claimed. They desired a feast for their natural evils, and 
that they might be exalted over other nations. But when 
they learned from the Lord, that His “kingdom” was “not 
of this world,” but of the spirit; and that it was to be en¬ 
tered and enjoyed by self-denial, repentance and reformation, 
they were utterly opposed to it. 

Personally, all natural-minded men, who will not repent • 
and reform, at the call of the Lord’s Word, are like the 
Jews in character; i. e., they are natural-minded, sensuous 
and selfish, and averse to goodness. 

THE SECOND CALL. 

“Again, he sent forth other servants,” etc. Thus the in¬ 
vitation is repeated. Historically, the first call was made to 
the Jews, through Moses and the prophets ; and the second 
call was given through John the Baptist, and Jesus Himself. 
Or, apart from persons, and in a general sense, the first in¬ 
vitation was made to men’s understanding, by instruction in 
truth, by which they were taught about the Lord, and heaven 


228 


Parables of the New Testament. 


and hell. And then, when men had sufficient instruction to 
know what the Lord teaches, a second invitation was ex¬ 
tended, to their will, by seeking to awake spiritual affeCtions 
in them. 

Thus, in order that men may truly come to the marriage, 
they are called, as to both parts of their mental nature, the 
understanding and the will. Thus opportunity is given to 
them to have their will and their understanding married, or 
united in spiritual conjunction. 

First, by truth, the Lord teaches us who and what He is, 
and what we are, and what are the relations between Him¬ 
self and us. And then, by a second invitation, He offers to 
join Himself to us, and to unite us to Himself, by means of 
love. He offers to fill all our affeCtions with genuine and 
heavenly life. 


THE FEAST. 

The feast, or “dinner,” to which we are called, is a con¬ 
sociation of friends. And we attend this feast, when we love 
the Lord, as our Friend, and desire to be united with Him, 
in love, wisdom and usefulness. We love the Lord as a 
friend, when we obey His laws of life. For He says, “ He 
that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is 
that loveth Me;” and “Ye are My friends, if ye do whatso¬ 
ever I command you.” The Lord, from His own Divine 
Love, provides the spiritual feast; He provides everything 
necessary for our union with Him. He gives us the truth ; 
and He fills us with love of the truth, as freely as we are 
willing to love it. He marries our knowledge and our af- 
feCfion, our truth and our good, as far as we will enter into 
the spiritual marriage. 

So, in the Church, the Holy Supper is a feast, a recep¬ 
tion of the bread of love and the wine of truth, in union 
with the Lord. And it is called a communion, because, in 
it, the hearts of sincere men are brought nearer to the Lord, 
and are more fully opened to His inflowing life; and, at the 


229 


The Marriage of the King's Son. 

same time, men are brought into closer and more loving 
union with each other. For men increase in the love of 
each other, as they increase in the love of their common 
Father. 

The Lord calls us to a feast in all the parts of our human 
life, will, understanding and conduCt. Religion it not a mat¬ 
ter of “faith, alone,” nor of love, alone, nor of works, alone ; 
it is the union, or marriage, of faith and love, in good works. 

Again, religion is not in an austere life of self-denial as to 
all the pleasures of human life; it is in the fulness of our life, 
in all its departments, but purified and ennobled by a per¬ 
vading spirit of love to the Lord. O Lord, “ In Thy pres¬ 
ence is fulness of joy, and at Thy right hand there are 
pleasures for evermore.” But they are the pleasures of a 
regenerate man. 


BEAST AND ANGEL. 

In man are combined the animal and the angel. It is 
not the fulness of a man’s natural and corporeal life that 
makes him a beast, but the abuse of it; the impurity of self¬ 
ish life, and its divorce from spiritual life; its practical denial 
of the principle of a marriage between the two natures in man. 
All the orderly affections in man are good, in their way, and 
in their place. But their quality depends on their inward 
life. If we indulge them merely for selfish gratification, and 
irrespective of the good of other persons, they are selfish and 
evil. But, if we use them in the love of the Lord, He will 
fill them with a higher quality of life, so that they will be in 
orderly connection with spiritual things; as the physical 
body, in its condition of order, is moved by the indwelling 
spirit. 

Thus, a man may eat and drink, and enjoy the life of his 
senses, provided he does so innocently. If he “eats to live,” 
he may enjoy his eating, because it is useful to him; and 
the use is the real end in view. But, if he “ lives to eat,” his 
end, or purpose, will be sensual and selfish, and so the whole 


230 Parables of the New Testament. 

man will be selfish; for all the ads of the man partake of 
his chara&eristic quality. 

THE PREPARATION. 

When the servants go out to call the guests, they say in 
the name of their master, “Behold, I have prepared my 
dinner,” etc. “ Behold !” calls the attention of the guests to 
the matter, and so brings the case pointedly before them. 
So, the truths of the Lord’s Word arrest our attention, and 
give us a pointed opportunity to know what is required of 
us. 

“My oxen and my fadings are killed, and all things are 
ready.” Beasts represent our affedions, of various kinds. 
The Lord is called a Lamb, to denote His Divine principle 
of innocence. And Jesus called Herod a fox, to denote 
Herod’s sensuous cunning, which the fox represents. Oxen 
represent the natural affedions; they are the every-day 
working affedions which we commonly exercise. Thus oxen 
represent the external good of our life. But fadings, as the 
young, or next generation, represent our inward or spiritual 
affedions, which are of our second birth, or regeneration. 
Thus they represent our spiritual good. And, in the full 
life of the regenerate man, both the oxen and the fadings 
are prepared for food; both his natural and spiritual affec¬ 
tions are good, and are food to him. Thus, while the unre¬ 
generate man is in disorder, both inwardly and outwardly, 
the regenerate man is in order, in freedom, and in fulness of 
life, both inwardly and outwardly. The Lord calls him to 
feast in all things of his full and rounded life, because they 
are all purified. “ All things are ready ” for a full and useful 
life. The Lord seeks to unite Himself to men, in the joys 
of regenerate life. 


man’s response. 

But how do men generally respond to the Lord’s invita- 


The Marriage of the King's Son. 231 

tion? Nearly every man will say that he loves the truth, 
and that he intends to do good. But, when the test comes 
praCtically before them, the majority of men seem to prefer 
their own sensuous life and selfish pleasures, rather than the 
joys of regenerate life. 

MAKING LIGHT OF THE INVITATION. 

When the guests were called to the feast, “they made 
light of it;” they allowed it to exert very little influence upon 
them; they held it in very light,, or slight, esteem. The 
selfish mind, when called to the heavenly marriage of good 
and truth, regards that marriage as of no importance, and 
remains unconverted and unrepentant. To such a mind, the 
life of heaven seems to be of no essential importance toward 
the life of earthly pleasures. Thus the evil mind is inverted, 
putting the earthly life above, and heaven below. “Then 
he forsook God who made him, and lightly esteemed the 
Rock of his salvation.” 


THE WAYS. 

“And [they] went their ways.” Ways, or paths, repre¬ 
sent mental ways, a man’s ways of thinking and doing. In 
a good sense, ways are truths, which are ways of attaining 
good. In a bad sense, as in the text, ways are false princi¬ 
ples, the ways in which evil men aCt. And these ways pass 
away from the Lord, and in the direction of self. So the 
selfish man separates himself from the Lord, and from the 
heavenly marriage of good and truth. 

THE FARM AND MERCHANDISE. 

“ His own farm,” relates to the principles in his will, or 
heart, his characteristic affections. For the farm is land, in 
which plants are raised; and land represents good, as dis¬ 
tinguished from water, or truth. And, as contrasted with 


232 Parables of the New Testament. 

the farm, “his merchandise,” or things of traffic, represent 
the thoughts in his understanding, with which he mentally 
trades. The man declines heavenly affe&ions and thoughts, 
and the heavenly marriage, and prefers his own kind of life, 
his evil affections, and his false thoughts, which he joins in 
an infernal marriage. 

It seems almost incredible that men should refuse the 
heavenly feast of regenerate life. And yet all history de¬ 
monstrates the faCt of such refusal. Men would not make 
light of, or hold as contemptible, an invitation from their 
earthly king, or ruler, asking them to dine with him. How 
amazing, then, that they should show contempt for the invi¬ 
tation of their heavenly King. But sensuous men see no¬ 
thing attraClive in the life of spiritual good and truth. 

Farms and merchandise are good, in their way and 
place; they are necessary and useful. But, if they engross 
our entire attention of heart, as well as of body, they become 
a snare to us. It is not merely the quantity of attention that 
a man gives to his external life and work, that injures his 
soul, but the quality of that attention. As long as he works 
for use, and for a good spiritual purpose, his work is useful. 
But when men care for external things, only, they destroy, 
in themselves, all the good influence of the Lord’s truth. 

THE SERVANTS. 

Men hear the Lord’s Word, and pay attention to it, 
through the “remains,” or good and true states stored up in 
their young minds, by the Lord. These “ remains ” are also 
the Lord’s servants. But, if men cling to the flesh-pots of 
Egypt, they become excited against the truth. Then, as 
the text says, “they took his servants, and entreated them 
spitefully, and slew them.” 

The first invitation was sent through instruction; and 
the second invitation came through the “remains,” to the 
will. That the evil men “took” these servants, means that 
violently, and in their will, they opposed the truths of the 


2 33 


The Marriage of the King's Son. 

Word ; that they “ entreated ” the servants “ spitefully ” means 
that they opposed these truths in their understanding, and 
held them in derision and contempt; that they “slew” the 
servants, means that they violated such truths in daily life, 
and thus destroyed, in themselves, the life of such truths. 

Witness how often the Jews slew the Lord’s prophets, 
and even slew the greatest of prophets, Jesus, Himself, the 
Divine Prophet. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killest the 
prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how 
often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a 
hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would 
not. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” 

THE JUDGMENT. 

“ But, when the king heard thereof, he was wroth; and 
he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and 
burned their city.” The Lord knows, of course, all that is 
going on in men’s minds and conduct. When it is said that 
the Lord heard, it means that men recognized the fa< 5 t that 
the Lord heard ; when the truth, which is the King, displays 
to men their own states. 

These things are said concerning the judgment, which 
results from men’s rejedtion of the Lord’s invitation, and of 
the good offices of the truths of the Divine Word.. As men 
fix and confirm themselves in the denial and rejection of the 
practical work of Divine Truth, these truths that they know, 
and yet hold in contempt, and abuse, bring them to judg¬ 
ment. These truths are laws of spiritual life; and they 
judge a man to remain what he has voluntarily and deliber¬ 
ately chosen to be. 

Thus, as a man fills up the measure of his charatTer, he 
necessarily comes to judgment; for judgment is the out¬ 
growth and result of his chara< 5 ter; and when his chara6fer 
is fixed, his judgment must be complete. If men have 
truths in their memory, and “remains” of good stored up in 
their hearts, the more they intentionally turn themselves 


234 


Parables of the New Testament. 


against these inward servants of the Lord, the more they 
judge themselves to be forms of the evil which they love and 
live upon. 

Thus, the truths of the Divine Word become an army, 
aCting in judgment. But there is no anger, or retaliation, in 
the Lord, nor in the truth. The wrath is in evil men, 
though, to them, it seems to be in the Lord. For every 
man’s idea of God is colored by his own charabfer. “ Thou 
thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself.” 

The Divine truth does not attack men, even when they 
are evil. But, when the Lord sends His truths to men, evil 
men pervert the truth, and, in their own minds, falsify it, and 
turn it into falsity. And it is this falsity which destroys the 
mind that holds it. These armies are, then, the falses in the 
understanding of the evil man. And the anger which he 
thinks he sees in the Lord, is really the evil in the man’s 
own will. These false principles destroy the murderers of 
good and truth, when they alienate such minds from the 
Lord, who is the only Source of life. 

BURNING THE CITY, 

And they burn the “city” of these murderers ; t.e., they 
destroy all the doctrines of truth, in the man’s mind. For a 
city represents an orderly arrangement of doctrines, in the 
mind, built up for the protection and use of the spirit. 

Fire is the symbol of love. But perverted or evil love is 
lust; and such fire is evil. And this evil is the fire that 
burns up the city, or doCtrine, of the unregenerate man. It 
is not the Lord that destroys men. “Evil shall slay the 
wickedand that evil is in the men, themselves. 

And because evil is a consuming fire, so the evil men, in 
the hells, are said to be in unquenchable fire. But the fire 
is in themselves. And the more they plunge themselves 
into evils, the more they destroy, in themselves, all good and 
true principles, and all heavenly marriage, and all the pres¬ 
ence and influence of the Lord. Historically, it was the love 


The Marriage of the King's So?i. 


235 


of evil, and the life of evil, in the Jews, that led them to 
rejeft the Lord, Jesus Christ, and thus to bring themselves 
to judgment. Those who will not come to the Lord’s mar¬ 
riage-feast, are those who will not meet the Lord, in His 
Word, and will not love, and adopt, the Divine Good, by 
obedience to His precepts of daily life. 

THE SECOND COMPANY INVITED. 

But now the king changes the form of his invitation, and 
calls to his feast another company of guests. “Then saith 
he unto his servants, The wedding is ready, but they who 
were bidden were not worthy. Go ye, therefore, into the 
high-ways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.” 
Men are worthy, when they understand and appreciate the 
worth of spiritual life ; when, in regenerate love, faith and 
obedience, they exalt the Lord above all else. Worthiness, 
then, does not depend upon a man’s hereditary natural qual¬ 
ities, nor upon any outward circumstances, but on his state 
of regeneration. He is “worthy,” in the degree in which he 
enters into the heavenly marriage. 

But the Divine Truth of the Lord’s Word, though re¬ 
jected by some who are instructed in it, yet finds a home in 
the minds of others, who have been in the falsities of ignor¬ 
ance ; and these by instruction, are brought into union with 
the Lord. 


WAYS. 

In Bible lands and times, the poor were often called in 
from the streets, or ways, to dispose of the remnants of a 
feast. A mental way is the path, or direction, in which the 
mind moves towards its purpose. What a man’s mental 
way is, will depend on what his ruling-love is. High-ways, 
or principal- paths, are the main roads of the mind; the 
ways, truths, or doCtrines, by which the mind travels to its 
ruling purpose. In the text, the expression is, literally, “the 


236 


Parables of the New Testament. 


parting's of the high-ways;” i. e., the cross-ways. The high¬ 
ways to heaven are the truths of the Lord’s Word. But the 
“partings of the high-ways,” that is, the cross-ways, are the 
indirect ways of the mind, the ways less clear, and more out 
of the beaten path. 

The Gentiles, not having the written Word, did not know 
the straight and direCf road to heaven; but they wandered 
in cross-ways and by-ways, in errors of opinion, in false 
doCtrines. They were “a people that walked in darkness.” 
The Jews, as a Church, were unworthy. And the Gentiles 
were called to become a new Church. They were ignorant; 
but some were well-disposed, while others were evil. 

But we have, in our own minds, both Jew and Gentile 
states. And when our Lord cannot turn us from our evils 
by means of direCt truths, on the main road of our mental 
life, He will send out His servants, the truths of His Holy 
Word, to appeal to our Gentile states of mind, to whatever 
may be well-disposed in our natural minds. And, often, 
where we would resist His plain leadings, He meets us in 
the cross-ways and by-ways of our mental life; and He 
reaches us indirectly, perhaps through some permitted disci¬ 
pline. Thus, the way to heaven is finally made attractive to 
all who have any disposition to walk in it. They “hear a 
word behind [them], saying, This is the way, walk ye 
in it.” 


GATHERING THE GUESTS. 

“So those servants went out into the cross-ways, and 
gathered together all, as many as they found, both bad and 
good; and the wedding-feast was furnished with guests.” 
Thus the truths of the Lord’s Word, negleCted by our sens¬ 
uous minds, still come to us, even indireCfly, in the by-ways 
of our thought and feeling; and they seek to influence 
everything in our natural mind, both bad and good. For 
the Lord’s Word is sent to all, that all may be regenerated, 
if possible; that the kingdom of heaven and the feast of 


The Marriage of the King's Son. 237 

spiritual marriage, may be furnished with guests from the 
human race. 

Thus the Divine Truth is given to all, and the Divine 
Providence is over all. There is no predestination of any 
one to hell. The Divinely-intended destiny of every man is 
heaven; the marriage-feast of the spirit is spread for all. 
And those who do not attend it, or who cannot remain at it, 
are those who, in spite of all that the Divine Love and Wis¬ 
dom can do, are not willing to be drawn away from their 
evil and selfish life. 

“And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw 
there a man who had not on a wedding-garment,” etc. 
By Oriental custom, when a king, or a great man, made 
a feast, and when the guests had assembled, the host came 
into the room, and passed among his guests, speaking to 
each. The “king” is the Lord. He comes in to see His 
guests when He sends His inflowing spirit into the minds of 
men. And the fuller inflowing of the Divine spirit into a 
man’s mind, produces a judgment upon the man. If he 
loves the Lord, he will then more fully reje< 5 ! his evils; but, 
if he does not love the Lord, he will then more fully reje< 5 t 
all that he knows of good and truth. 

The man addressed as a “friend” [literally, an “acquaint¬ 
ance”], means one who is acquainted with the Lord, by 
knowing truths, but who does not love the truth, and does 
not love the Lord. 

THE WEDDING-GARMENT. 

When the king came in, he found a man without a wed¬ 
ding-garment ; i. e., he was not properly dressed for the 
occasion. Literally, it seems very harsh and unfair, to cen¬ 
sure a man for not being properly dressed, when, according 
to our modern customs, he would not have had any oppor¬ 
tunity to dress himself suitably; for he was taken from the 
street, without adequate notice, and without opportunity to 
go home to prepare himself. 


238 Parables of the New Testament. 

But a knowledge of Oriental customs relieves the case of 
its apparent harshness. Oriental kings, and other rich men, 
kept large supplies of extra clothing, for the use of their 
guests. And so it was expedted that each guest would ap¬ 
pear in the banquet-room, properly dressed. And if he 
failed to do so, his action would be regarded as an insult to 
the host. And, very naturally, the offender would be ex¬ 
pelled from the house. 

And, in the spiritual sense of the text, the man would 
commit an offence, and would exclude himself from the 
spiritual marriage-feast. In the Sacred Scriptures, much is 
said about the garments of men, of angels, and of the Lord. 
For instance, in the transfiguration of Jesus, the changes 
in His appearance extended to His garments, also. Gar¬ 
ments, or clothing, represent truths, in which the mind is 
clothed. Every affection is clad, or expressed, or manifested, 
in some corresponding truth. Excited and powerful affec¬ 
tion clothes itself in vigorous and diredl thoughts and 
language; and a listless, dreamy feeling comes slowly forth, 
in easy and moderate thoughts and words. 

ILLUSTRATIONS. 

In Psalm civ., 2, we read of the Lord, “Who coverest 
Thyself with light, as with a garment.” And light is the sym¬ 
bol of truth, for truth is the light of the mind. Thus the Lord 
covers Himself with truth, as with a garment. The garment 
of the Lord is the Divine Truth. And so the Church is thus 
addressed, “ Put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the 
holy city.” 

As the mental marriage is the union of good and truth, 
or of love and wisdom, so the wedding-garment is the truth 
which is loved and pradfised, and which is thus joined with 
love. For instance, the truth which is held by “faith alone,” 
is not a wedding-garment, for it is not married to our affec¬ 
tion. 

Thus, the man who presented himself at the wedding- 


The Marriage of the King's So?i. 


239 


feast, without arraying himself in the suitable clothing pro¬ 
vided by the king, represents the man who expedls to attain 
and enjoy the heavenly delights of regenerate life, by “faith 
alone,” without waiting to clothe his mind in the truths of 
heaven, spiritually married to a heavenly love of good and 
truth, and confirmed in the practise of good and truth, m 
his daily life. 

The truths of the Lord’s Word will call men to the feadt; 
but they will also conduct them to the Sacred Scriptures, as 
the King’s wardrobe, provided for His guests, that they 
may clothe themselves in suitable wedding-garments, for the 
marriage-feast of the King’s Son. 

WITHOUT A WEDDING-GARMENT. 

But the man without a wedding garment is one who, at 
the call of the Divine Word, attempts to come into heavenly 
life, and into intimate communion with the Lord, without a 
thorough and living love of the truth; without doing the 
work of repentance and reformation. The Lord cannot give 
heaven to those who will not do their part to make them¬ 
selves receptive of heavenly principles. And heavenly prin¬ 
ciples do not become fixed and confirmed in the man, except 
by a life according to them. “ Why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, 
and do not the things which I say?” 

That the Lord saw the man without a wedding-garment, 
means that the presence of the Divine Truth displayed the 
real character of the man, as not heavenly. 

THE SUPREME MEANING. 

In the best sense, the wedding-garment, in which we at¬ 
tend the marriage-feast of the King’s Son, is the truth of the 
Divine Humanity of Jesus Christ, in which the Divine and 
Human natures are married, in the one person of the one 
God, Jesus Christ. In the light which comes to the sincere 
mind, in the affe&ionate reception of this great truth, the 


240 


Parables of the New Testament. 


mind is inwardly open spiritually and rationally to understand 
the Lord, Himself, and His holy Word ; and to commune 
with the Lord, in His Word, as in a feast of love and 
wisdom. 

So, the Lord calls all men, even the Gentiles, to feast in 
the good and true things of His holy Word. And He in¬ 
forms them that, to enjoy this feast, they must first clothe 
themselves, mentally, with the truths of the letter of the 
Word, the commandments of life. “A good understanding 
have all they that do His commandments.” 

Thus, if a man does not love the truth, and will not prac¬ 
tise it, his theoretical knowledge of it will not suitably array 
his mind for a heavenly feast. In the judgment, he will be 
seen to be without the life of truth; and then, as he develops 
his real chara6Ier, he will lose even the knowledge of truth. 
For a man carries with him, into the a< 51 ive life of the spirit¬ 
ual world, those things, only, which he has built into his 
pra6lical life on earth. And they who, knowing the truth, 
would neither love it nor pradfise it, will then utterly reje< 5 t 
it, even as theory. 

If they attempt to claim heaven, by reason of their sup¬ 
posed faith, the light of heaven will be let in upon their 
minds; and it will show them not only what their real char¬ 
acter is, but also that the real character of heaven is not all 
congenial to them. 


SPEECHLESS. 

And then they will be “speechless,” like the man in the 
parable; i. e ., they will be convinced of their unfitness for 
heavenly life, and unable to offer any excuse. Speech is the 
expression of thought. And one who is speechless is one 
who has nothing to say, no thought to express, in defence of 
himself. And spiritually, he has no thought in favor of 
heavenly life, for he is not mentally clothed in heavenly 
truth. 


/ 


The Marriage of the King's Son. 241 

BINDING, ETC. 

When evil is given control of the affections, and thus of 
the secret thoughts, it binds a man in slavery to sin. “ Who¬ 
soever committeth sin is the servant of sin.” Thus the king 
said to his servants, concerning the man without a wedding- 
garment, “ Bind him, hand and foot, and take him away, 
and cast him into outer darkness.” To “bind him hand 
and foot,” is to bind his powers, or faculties, of the interior 
mind, and of the exterior mind; for the hands are the upper 
extremities, and the feet are the lower extremities. And 
they both represent our powers, which we exert by them, in 
the works of our hands, and in the walk of our feet. 

Thus evil binds the whole man in sin. And, as evil men 
must be restrained from doing evil to others, it appears, to 
them, that the Lord binds them, when, in fa< 5 f, they are 
bound by their own evils. And the Lord really comes to 
them, to set them free, “to proclaim liberty to the captives, 
and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” 

TAKING AWAY. 

Evils also “take” a man “away” from the Lord. His 
charaCler grows more and more antagonistic to the Lord, 
and further from the standard “measure of a man, that is, of 
an angel.” He takes himself away from the heavenly mar¬ 
riage. And he casts himself into outer darkness, or falsity. 

There are two kinds of falsity, the falsity of ignorance, or 
want of instruction, which is excusable; and the falsity of 
evil, which is intentional, and not excusable. The latter is 
the outer (or utter) darkness, which falls upon the mind 
that will not love and do the Lord’s truth, even when know¬ 
ing the truth. Such minds “love darkness, their deeds be¬ 
ing evil.” “ If the light that is in thee be darkness, how 
great is that darkness.” These two kinds of darkness are 
referred to in Isaiah lx. 2; “ Behold, darkness shall cover 
the earth, and gross darkness the people.” The greater the 


242 Parables of the New Testament. 

light which a man has, the greater his darkness, if he reje&s 
that light. It is not the Lord that rejects men, as it is not 
the sunlight that rejects the diseased eye. 

WEEPING, ETC. 

“ There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” “ Weep¬ 
ing” indicates an unhappy state of the will, because the 
man is necessarily made unhappy by evil, and cannot be free 
to carry out his desires. “Gnashing of teeth” is an un¬ 
comfortable state of the intelledf, which is in violent collision 
with truths, and is disturbed by the light of truth. 

CALLED AND CHOSEN. 

“For many are called, but few chosen.” Literally, this 
may refer to the Hebrew soldiers. All men over twenty 
years of age were called, or enrolled; but when war arose, 
these men were passed in review, and the requisite number 
of the most fit men were “chosen” for the occasion. And 
the Hebrew soldiers were called bahurim , which means 
“chosen.” 

But, spiritually, all are “called,” who hear the truths of 
the Lord’s Word. But those are “chosen,” who not only 
hear the truth, but also love it, and do it; i. e ., who have 
chosen the Lord’s truths as their principles of adlual life. For 
men are not saved by knowledge of true dodtrine, but by a 
life according to true dodtrine; for it is the life which spirit¬ 
ually marries their knowledge and their love, and unites men 
with the Lord. And “they that are with Him are called, 
and chosen, and faithful.” 

MANY AND FEW. 

Spiritually, numbers do not express quantity, but quality. 
The “few” who are chosen are those who cultivate the few 
necessary principles of a good life, love, faith, and obedience 


The Marriage of the King's Son. 


243 


to the Lord. The “ many ” who are called, are all those who 
are living in the many selfish and worldly principles of evil 
life. Men choose their own spiritual destiny, by their man¬ 
ner of life. The Lord invites all men to the marriage-feast 
of goodness; but His gracious invitation is very differently 
received and treated by different men. The Lord does all 
that He can do, for every man. But men do not do all that 
they could do. 

The Lord says, “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, 
and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt Me and My 
vineyard. What could have been done more, to My vine¬ 
yard, that I have not done, in it? Wherefore, then, when I 
looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth 
wild grapes? .... For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is 
the house of Israel-, and the men of Judah His pleasant plant: 
and He looked for judgment, and behold, oppression; for 
righteousness, but behold a cry.” 

DISTINCTIONS. 

This parable somewhat resembles the last one, on “ The 
Wicked Husbandmenbut that parable more especially 
related to the states of the understanding, and the rejection 
of truth : and the present parable relates more especially to 
states of the will, or heart, and the reje< 5 tion of good. 

ILLUSTRATIONS. 

The fa£t that many men do not desire to enter into the 
heavenly marriage of good and truth, is sadly and abundantly 
illustrated, in these days, by the general looseness of the out¬ 
ward marriage-relation between individuals : for the general 
state of personal external marriage, in any community, will 
always depend on the general state of spiritual marriage, in 
that community. How little there is, in the social marriage- 
relation, as generally observed, to indicate any heavenly ori¬ 
gin. How selfish, sensuous and worldly it generally seems 



244 Parables of the New Testament. 

to be! Men and women enter into it for merely worldly 
motives, and thus pervert its holy uses. 

And the New-Church has a duty to perform, in this mat¬ 
ter of social marriage. We cannot control the world in gen¬ 
eral ; but we can control ourselves. We can, by teaching, 
and by example, show the relation between external and 
internal marriage. And, especially, we can save our children 
from the terrible falsities about marriage, that are now pre¬ 
valent in society. We can teach them rationally to see 
that the man or woman who marries for any other cause 
than sincere and exclusive love, or who practises deceit in 
the marriage-relation, is taking a long step towards spiritual 
destruction. And woe to those who “make light” of either 
the external or the internal marriage; their spiritual destruc¬ 
tion is impending. In every truth of His holy Word, our 
blessed Lord is calling us to the marriage-feast of heavenly 
life. And one of the most effective means of attaining a spir¬ 
itual marriage, is a sincere, pure external marriage. 


The Fig-tree Putting Forth Leaves . 


*45 


XVII. 

€tfe fig^trcc putting fortl) Jlcabcjtf. 

(MATTHEW XXIV. 32-35.) 

EVIDENCE OF THE SECOND COMING OF THE IORD. 


NEW LIFE. 

The parable refers to the second coming of the Lord. 
Every coming of the Divine influence to men, in a new 
dispensation, is marked by a greater prevalence of good 
and truth among men. As men grow indifferent to 
good and truth, and finally oppose them, the Lord pre¬ 
sents them in some other form, so that men, if willing, 
may renew their love for these principles, and may re¬ 
turn to the practice of them. And every such return of 
men to better things, is characterized by the presence of 
more practical good in their daily life. And the increase 
of such practical good is evidence of a new inflowing of 
the Divine life, for human salvation. 

The new activity is the sign of a new life, as, in the 
fig-tree, the new life of summer reveals its activity in the 
softening of the branches, and the growth of new 
leaves. 

Jesus had spoken to His disciples, about His second 
coming, and of its results, in bringing a judgment upon 
the Church and the world. In the language of symbols, 
He had portrayed the destruction of evil, and the triumph 
of good. 



246 


Parables of the New Testament\ 


THE THINGS TO COME. 

In close connection with the text, Jesus said, “Im¬ 
mediately after the tribulation of those days, shall the sun 
be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and 
the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the 
heavens shall be shaken; and then shall appear the sign 
of the Son of Man in heaven; and then shall all the 
tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of 
Man, coming in the clouds of heaven, with power, and 
great glory. And He shall send His angels, with a great 
sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His 
eleCI from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the 
other.” These are the things of which the text says, 
“when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, 
at the doors.” 


THE SPIRITUAL MEANING. 

Therefore, to understand the reference of the parable, 
we must obtain some idea of what ‘ * these things ’ ’ repre¬ 
sent. The Lord had been speaking of the self-destruCtion 
of the First Christian Church, by loss of love and faith, 
in a disorderly life. The darkening of the sun repre¬ 
sented the loss of the light, or Divine Truth, because of 
the failure of love to the Lord. And the darkening of 
the moon represented the loss of faith, because of the 
failure of love to the neighbor. The falling of the stars 
represented the loss of the knowledges of good and truth. 
“The powers of the heavens shall be shaken” meant that 
the foundations of the Church should thus be broken. 

And thus, the dispensation of the First Christian 
Church would be brought to an end. But the Lord 
would come again, as the Divine Truth, to give life to 
those who, being in the love of good and truth, were 
mourning for spiritual life. And the Lord would reveal to 
men the interior spiritual meaning of His holy Word. 


The Fig-tree Putting Forth Leaves. 247 

And the truth of this spiritual sense would be the means 
of gathering together the good and sincere among men, to 
establish a new Church. And the text indicates what 
shall be the evidence and sign of the beginning of this 
new Church. 


TREES. 

Trees represent the living, growing principles of the 
mind. In the Sacred Scriptures, frequent mention is 
made of trees, especially the olive, the vine, and the fig- 
tree ; which, in the language of symbols, represent the 
three discrete degrees of human life, the celestial, the 
spiritual and the natural. 

The celestial degree, represented by the olive, is the 
degree of love to the Lord, a state of mind and life in 
which a pervading love to the Lord is the great motor- 
power of the man’s conscious being. This is a love of 
good. 

The spiritual degree, represented by the vine, or 
grape, is the degree of charity, or love to the neighbor; 
which is the love of truth, as distinguished from the love 
of good. 


THE FIG-TREE. 

And the natural degree, represented by the fig, is the 
love of obedience to the law. This is a love of doing 
well, in conduct, sometimes without the profounder con¬ 
scious love of the Lord, or of the principles of truth, as 
such. Thus the fig-tree represents the natural degree, 
and the natural man, or the natural mind of man. And, 
at the same time, the fig-tree must represent the natural, 
or external, Church, as distinguished from the internal, 
or spiritual, Church. 

Taking the fig-tree as the natural man, his branches 
are his affections, which branch out, on all sides, from his 


248 Parables of the New Testament . 

ruling-love, or main trunk. And the leaves are the 
thoughts of truth, which come forth from his affe6tions. 

THE TENDER BRANCH. 

As the return of vernal warmth, in nature, starts the 
tree to new life, causing it to soften its branches, and to 
put forth new leaves, so, in the arousing of new life in 
the mind of a man, his affe6tions become soft and tender ; 
and they put forth new thoughts, new states of truth, in 
the development of new life. From the Divine influence, 
operating within the man, like the flow of the sap in the 
tree, there comes a new softness and tenderness of the 
affections. 

In our natural body, the soft parts are the most vital, 
and the highest, and the fullest of life; and the hard 
parts, as the bones, skin and hair, are the least vital, and 
the least receptive of life. So, in the tree, the life and 
growth are not in the hardest parts, but in the soft and 
tender parts. During the winter, the tree is hard. But, 
when the return of the warm season brings a new life, the 
branches become soft and tender, and then they put forth 
new leaves. 

THE WARM SEASON. 

The warm season is when the heat and the light are 
both present, and are united in their operation. And so, 
mentally, our warm season of life and growth is when, 
in our minds, both the light of truth and the warmth of 
love are present, and are united in their operation. Our 
mental summer is the activity of a new life within us; it 
is a new state of the Church, in our minds and lives. 
And when our faith and our love are united, they come 
forth into good deeds, the fruits of our principles of life. 

And this state of mind is near, when our will begins 
to soften ; to show less of the hardness of self-love, and 


The Fig-tree Putting Forth Leaves. 249 

more of the tenderness of love to others; and when, 
from this new tenderness, we put forth mental leaves, 
new thoughts of truth, as evidence of new life. Every 
aCtive affeCtion is continually putting forth itself in cor¬ 
responding thoughts. 

And wherever we find a very aCtive state of intellect, 
a multitude of thoughts, we may know that this state is 
the result of an active state of some affection. And when 
the intellectual activity is in spiritually good and true 
thoughts, which seek to embody themselves in good and 
useful works, we may know that a mental summer is 
near. 

For spiritual nearness is of state, not of time. Of 
course, times come, in the natural world, but they come 
together with states, or conditions, in the mental world. 
“The good time coming” is the good condition coming. 
And it is coming, when we are coming into it. 

THE NEW GROWTH. 

When a new Church is being formed by the Lord, the 
first evidence of its growth is in the greater prevalence of 
thoughts about natural goodness. For all truth is prac¬ 
tical ; and it leads to practical results. And so, when a 
new life begins to operate upon a man’s life, the first evi¬ 
dence of any change in the man’s ways is to be seen in 
his thoughts about his conduct. 

And, while the new life is beginning to operate, we must 
look for a change on the other side, in the breaking up 
of old conditions of feeling and thought. For a man will 
not have new feelings and thoughts, from new affections 
and new states of his understanding, until there has been 
a breaking up of the old conditions. As he gives up, 
and outgrows, old conditions, he enters into new states ; 
as the boy grows into manhood as he outgrows boy¬ 
hood. 

There is a law of gradual growth, even in the regen- 


250 Parables of the New Testament. 

erating mind, as in the tree, from the seed to the fruit. 
And, in the restoration to order, there is a parallel law 
of gradual growth, out of evil and falsity and sin, into 
good and truth and righteousness. 

THE OLD AND THE NEW. 

Therefore, the breaking up of old conditions is a 
prophecy of the coming of new conditions; for it is the 
spirit of the new that breaks up the old. 

And, as “man doth not live by bread, alone, but by 
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God;” 
and as the decline of any Church must be followed by a 
new Church, in order to preserve the human race on 
earth; so, when we see the decline of a Church, and its 
impending self-destruction, we know that the coming of 
a new dispensation is necessary. 

“So, likewise, ye, when ye shall see all these things, 
know that it is near.” For we know that the human race 
can be preserved in no other way than by maintaining 
its conscious connection with the Lord. And when we 
see one phase, or dispensation, of the Church, rapidly 
declining, and its connection with the Lord closing up, 
we know that the Lord will soon institute a new dispens¬ 
ation, or new Church, for the salvation of men. 

The parable refers to both of these events, the decline 
of the Old-Church, and the rise of the New-Church. 
The Old-Church declined, because, from evils of life and 
false teachings, there no longer remained in the Church, 
any clear knowledge of spiritual truth ; but, instead of 
such clear knowledge and understanding, there arose 
multitudes of angry disputes, and sectarian bigotry. 
From evils thus aroused, men were led to despise the 
simple truths of heaven. They not only failed to see, 
and to acknowledge, the real quality of good and truth, 
but they also' profaned and perverted such good and 
truth as they knew. 


The Fig-tree Putting Forth Leaves. 251 

Thus the Old-Church was brought to its end. This 
is “the consummation of the age,” or “end of the dis¬ 
pensation,” which, in the common version of the Bible, 
has been wrongly translated “the end of the world.” 
And, at this end of the old state of the Church, the 
New-Church began, so that men could still be saved from 
evil. 

EVIDENCE OF A NEW CHURCH. 

By means of the fig-tree as a symbol, the parable 
shows us that the evidence that the New-Church has 
begun, is to be found in the growth, among men, of 
pra6tical thought towards a more tender, receptive and 
useful life, on the natural plane. For men never accident¬ 
ally grow better, without an efficient cause. If they be¬ 
come better, there must be something which makes them 
better ; and that something must come from the Lord, as 
the source of all good. 

And so, a general condition of a< 5 live thought for 
greater natural goodness among men, is positive evidence 
of the beginning of a new Church, whose truths are op¬ 
erating upon the minds and lives of men. 

JUDGMENT. 

The breaking up of old and disorderly states is a 
judgment upon men who are in those conditions. And 
after such a judgment, and because of its results, men 
are then more free to think, and to receive the new life. 

We see this fa<T physically illustrated in our bodies. 
Sometimes, men are in unhealthy conditions, which come 
to a climax in a fever. The fever is as a judgment on 
that condition of the body ; and, if the man lives through 
the fever, and returns to strength, he is generally in bet¬ 
ter condition than for some time before the fever; he is 
more free to receive new life, because of the breaking up 
of old conditions. 


252 Parables of the New Testament. 

So, mentally, evils accumulate strength, until the 
mind is ready and ripe for judgment; and this judgment 
is effe&ed by the operation of new truths, which are 
working for a new life. And, by the establishment of a 
new Church, a refuge is afforded for those who are will¬ 
ing to flee from the old conditions. 

TH£ LORD’S PRESENCE. 

The Lord is always with men, as the sun is always 
with the earth; but men’s evils and falsities, like vapors 
from the earth, arise to shut out the Lord’s influences. 
But, as men’s evils bring them to judgment, and an old 
church dies, for want of spiritual life, the Lord sends 
forth new life, for the salvation of such as are willing to 
receive it. 

And the breaking up of old conditions renders it pos¬ 
sible for men to receive the new life, as a result of the 
storm is to clear the atmosphere for the coming of the 
sunlight. “It is near, at the doors.” These doors are 
in our minds. “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock ; 
if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will 
come in unto him, and will sup with him, and he with 
Me.” 

The doors of our minds are on double-hinges; they 
swing both ways, inwardly and outwardly ; and they open 
upward and downward. Our minds, like the ark of 
Noah, are of three stories, or three degrees, natural, 
spiritual and celestial. And there is a door opening into 
each degree. In the unregenerate state, the higher doors 
are closed, and the door between the natural mind and 
the world is the only one open. But regeneration opens 
the inward doors, and thus opens man’s mind to the con¬ 
sciousness of interior life. 

When the old, unregenerate conditions break up, the 
new life comes to our mental doors, knocking for admit¬ 
tance. Though all good comes to us from the Lord, by an 


The Fig-tree Putting Forth Leaves. 


253 


inward way, yet we first become conscious of the good in 
our natural minds. The first door of the man’s con¬ 
scious life, is that which opens to his natural mind. And, 
when new life comes to a man, necessarily it must influ¬ 
ence him first on the natural plane, in the natural degree. 
Thus, natural good comes first, and forms a base, on 
which spiritual and celestial good must rest. For, on 
earth, we are in externals; we see principles in their out¬ 
ward application, because we live amid outward things 
and duties. And thus, a change in our outward life of 
condu6l, is the first evidence we give of a change in our 
chara< 5 ter. 


THIS GENERATION. 

“Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not 
pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” This generation, 
or birth, means this natural plane and degree of life, in 
which our feelings and thoughts are now generated. 
And, in the regeneration, in the coming of the new life, 
we are not to expe6t to attain interior, spiritual life, by 
the passing away of our natural duties and states ; but we 
are to prove our regeneration by and in “this gener¬ 
ation;” i. e., in the natural degree of our life; in the 
goodness, the order, the usefulness, of our daily life 
amid outwanj things. “These things [will] be fulfilled,” 
when our natural mind is filled full of the new life ; for 
then the old conditions shall have been broken up. 

Literally, “this generation” was the Jewish nation, 
which was not destroyed, but preserved, by the Divine 
Providence, in order that the Hebrew language and the 
Old Testament might be preserved for the New-Church. 

THE SPIRITUAL HEAVENS AND EARTH. 

But the parable was intended as a spiritual prophecy, 
as we see from the next, and last, verse of the parable, 


254 Parables of the New Testament. 

“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall 
not pass away.” In all cases, where the letter of the 
Scriptures speaks of the heavens and the earth passing 
away, the language is symbolic: and the mental heavens 
and earth are meant, not the physical ones. A new heaven 
is a new state of our interior minds, regarding heavenly 
things; and a new earth is a new and regenerate state of 
our external or natural minds, regarding the things of 
outward life. Old conditions are broken up, and new 
conditions are created. 

THE NEW LIFE. 

It is a very significent faCt, that, in the parable, the 
fig-tree represents the New-Church; and it shows us that 
this New-Church is to be introduced by thoughts of new 
life, which are to efleCt greater practical goodness among 
men. Thus, the evidence of the operation of the New- 
Church upon men, is not to be found in the dogmatic 
quarrels about doCtrines, but by the budding of a new 
and more tender goodness among men, which shall put 
forth fresh and living truths, ‘ * leaves [which] shall be for 
the healing of the nations.” 

And, now, what evidence have we, to-day, of the silent 
working of a new life among men? The newspapers are 
full of reports of human iniquity. But, on the other 
hand, there are signs of the times which indicate better 
conditions. 

There is a wide-spread tenderness among men, show¬ 
ing itself, as one must expeCt it to do, in natural good 
works, and practical truths for natural life; in the decay 
of sectarianism ; in the care of the afflicted, in all depart¬ 
ments ; in the societies for relief of human suffering, tak¬ 
ing form in hospitals for the sick, the wounded, the blind, 
the deaf, the dumb, the imbecile, the inebriates, and even 
the affliCted beasts; in the growing desire for arbitration, 
instead of war; in the homes for the orphans, the veteran 


The Fig-tree Putting Forth Leaves. 


255 


soldiers and sailors, and the aged men and women ; in 
the improvement of the conditions of prisoners and pris¬ 
ons ; in the discovery and use of anaesthetics, for relief 
during surgical operations ; in the multiplying of free 
schools, colleges, and other educational uses; in the 
prompt and indignant outcries against cruel punishments 
to men, children or beasts ; and, generally, in a more 
sympathetic and healthier tone in the^ feelings and ways 
of men to each other. 


BEGINNINGS. 

True, these things are on the natural plane; but they 
are the outworkings of a better life; and they are form¬ 
ing a base, on which to build something better and higher. 
They may begin in merely hereditary goodness, or kind¬ 
ness, which men do, when it does not interfere with their 
selfish purposes ; but these things will come to be ackowl- 
edged as good and necessary ; and they will be done 
from regenerate goodness, which is spiritual in its origin, 
although natural in its application. 

Spiritually, it is not summer, yet; but there are signs 
of the coming of summer. The branches of the fig-tree 
are growing tender, and new leaves are sprouting. And, 
as good and truth are united, conjoined, on the natural 
plane, in good works, we may see evidence of the work¬ 
ing of the New-Church among men. And, without this 
practical goodness, we cannot expe< 5 f evidence of New- 
Church life. Repentance, reformation and regeneration 
are certain to express and embody themselves in a prac¬ 
tical goodness, which feels and thinks for the good of our 
fellow-men. 


HOPEFUL ACTIVITIES. 

Since the “Last Judgment,” in 1757, (which was a 
spiritual judgment, in the spiritual world,) the intermed- 


256 Parables of the New Testament . 

iate world of spirits has been in better order, and men 
are more free to think rationally. Notice the wide-spread 
change in the character of popular reading. There has 
never before been a time when so many thoughtful books 
have had a wide circulation. There is great mental a<Tiv- 
ity. Discoveries and inventions have come, and are 
coming, rapidly, in all departments of outward life. And 
all these uses are good. 

In olden times, a few men domineered over the masses. 
Few could read; and few had any voice in making the 
laws by which they were governed. But there is a rapid 
rising of the masses towards mental and educational 
equality with the leaders. Men are becoming less gov¬ 
erned by opinions of others, and more by their thinking 
‘for themselves. Steam and eledlricity, by rapid and 
cheap communication, have brought men into more fre¬ 
quent and intimate association; and have given to the 
masses the benefits of the learning and the work of the 
leaders. 

All these things are providing natural bases for the 
future building and growth of spiritual life. Externals are 
not to be despised, but loved and used, in the right way, 
and for the use of the spirit. 

THE lord’s SECOND COMING. 

Over one hundred years ago, the Lord sent a herald, 
to proclaim to men the last judgment upon the First 
Christian Church, and the coming of a New-Church, as 
the Second Coming of the Lord, Jesus Christ, a spiritual 
coming, in a new outpouring of light and life. That her¬ 
ald was Swedenborg, who was commissioned to reveal 
in the writings of the New-Church, the inward spiritual 
meaning of the Word of God. 

When that spiritual truth is known, loved and prac¬ 
tised, we may look for spiritual evidence of the work of 
the New-Church. Men will not glide into the New- 


The Fig-tree Putting Forth Leaves. 257 

Church, without true do&rine. But, as we love the truth, 
and “hunger and thirst after righteousness,” the Divine 
Providence will see that we “shall be filled” with a 
knowledge of the truth, and an opportunity to live by 
it. 

The New-Church will descend into the minds of men, 
as the old conditions of old evils and falsities are broken 
up, and removed. “If any man will do His [the Lord’s] 
will, he shall know of the do6lrine.” The softening of 
the natural man, and the new thoughts and deeds of 
natural good, give us some evidence that “the summer 
is nigh.” 


258 


Parables of the New Testament. 


XVIII. 

€1 )t €en t5irgin£* 

(MATTHEW XXV. X— 13.) 

FAITH WITH LOVE, AND FAITH ALONE. 


THE LITERAL STORY. 

The force of this parable is more apparent, when we con¬ 
sider the peculiarities of an Oriental marriage-feast. “ These 
marriage-festivals lasted, sometimes, several days. But the 
period of greatest public interest was that when the bride¬ 
groom conducted his bride from her parents’ house to her 
future home. This was usually done at night, when the 
parties, accompanied by their respective friends, joined in 
glad procession; and the scene, lit up by countless torches, 
and enlivened by choral songs, or instrumental music, was 
particuliarly exciting and delightful.” Several persons were 
stationed at the bridegroom’s house, to welcome the pro¬ 
cession. And, as the head of the approaching column came 
in sight, there was a cry made, “Behold, the bridegroom 
cometh! ” 

The Jewish rabbi, Jarchi, says, “ It was the custom, in the 
land of Ishmael, to take the bride from her father’s house to 
her husband’s, in the night; and to carry before her about 
ten staves. Upon the top of each staff was the form of a 
brazen dish; and, in the midst of it, pieces of garments, 
oil and pitch, which they set on fire. Holding these in one 
hand, they carry, in the other, vessels full of oil, with which 
they replenish, from time to time, their else useless lamps.” 



The Ten Virgins. 


259 


THE SPIRITUAL MEANING. 

In general, the parable treats of the coming of our Lord, 
and of the judgment accompanying His coming; and in par¬ 
ticular, it treats of faith joined with love, as distinguished 
from knowledge without love. 

In the last parable, something was shown concerning the 
coming of the Lord, and the state of things then existing. 
We saw that the old conditions of human life would be 
broken up, and new states induced. And now, in the present 
parable, we shall see another result of the Lord’s second 
coming, in separating, into two classes, those who will out¬ 
wardly receive the new truth; viz., those who will receive 
the truth into their will, as well as into their understanding; 
and those who will receive the truth as doctrine, but in their 
understanding, only. 


THE VIRGINS. 

In the Scriptures, the Church is frequently represented 
by a woman, or several women. Virgins, being unmarried 
women, represent the Church not yet in conjunction with the 
Lord, in spiritual marriage. The Lord is the Bridegroom, 
and the Church is His bride. As the true bride looks to her 
husband, and receives into her heart his love and his image, 
and is loyal to him, in affection, in thought, and in conduct; 
so the Church looks to the Divine Bridegroom, receives His 
image, and is loyal to Him. “For thy Maker is thine Hus¬ 
band ; Jehovah of hosts is His name.” Good virgins, there¬ 
fore, represent the Church, seeking conjunction with the Lord. 

In the Scriptures we find many things said about “virgin 
daughters,” of Jerusalem, of Judah, of Zion, etc. Ten “vir¬ 
gins” represent all in the Church; for “ten” frequently 
represents all, or the fulness of anything. So we have, in 
the Decalogue, ten commandments, concerning all things of 
our inward and outward life, and all the good and true prin¬ 
ciples of the regenerate life. 


26 o 


Parables of the New Testament. 


LAMPS. 

The virgins “took their lamps, and went forth to meet 
the bridegroom.” Lamps, as hollow vessels, to contain 
material for making light, represent dodlrines, knowledges 
of truth, mental forms, or vessels, to receive and contain the 
good and true principles of practical life. “Thy Word is a 
lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” The ten vir¬ 
gins, having lamps, represent those who are in the Church, 
and who have been instrudled in dodlrine, and who have 
some interest in it. Mentally, they “go forth to meet the 
Bridegroom:” they seek the Lord and heaven, in the light 
of doCtrine. 


THE WISE AND THE FOOLISH. 

But “ five of them were wise, and five foolish. ” Heavenly 
wisdom is in knowing, loving and practising the truth. Fool¬ 
ishness is in not loving or pradlising the truth that we know. 
A similar use of the terms wise and foolish is seen in the first 
parable, in Matthew vii. 24-26. A “wise” man is one who 
both hears and obeys the Lord’s teachings ; while a “ foolish ” 
man is one who hears, but does not practise, the Lord’s truth. 

Before the coming of the Bridegroom, in judgment, the 
wise and the foolish are together, in the external Church. 
We notice this faCt in other parables of our Lord : the wheat 
and the tares grow together, for a time; and the sheep and 
the goats are together a while. But the coming of the Lord, 
in judgment, separates the two classes. And the separation 
is the effedl of their difference in charadler. 

OIL. 

“They that were foolish took their lamps, but took no 
oil with them.” Oil, which is warm and smooth, represents 
the love-principle. In the lamp, the light is from the oil, not 
from the lamp, itself. The lamp is only the means of using 


The Ten Virgins . 


261 

the oil, to make light. So the lamp represents the dodlrine, 
the knowledge, which, if filled with the warm oil of love, is a 
means of enlightenment and of intelligence. We see the 
charadler of oil, in its frequent use in the temple-service, in 
Israel. 

But an empty lamp represents empty dodlrine, dodlrine 
held intelledlually, only, and not filled with the love of good 
and truth; and hence, not carried out in the pradlical life. 
The oil of love feeds the light of spiritual intelligence, but the 
knowledge which is empty of love cannot maintain genuine 
intelligence. 

The wise are those who receive the truth into their will, 
as well as into their understanding; they take oil to keep 
their lamps supplied ; their love of good and truth maintains 
their spiritual intelligence. The wise have both religious 
knowledge and religious life; they know the dodlrine, and 
they keep the commandments; they have a pure heart, an 
enlightened understanding, and a holy life. The foolish have 
knowledge, but they do not shun evils, as sins. 

THE ABSENCE OF THE BRIDEGROOM. 

“ While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and 
slept.” In many of the parables, and other sayings of the 
Lord, we notice this element of the apparent absence of the 
Lord. “ The bridegroom tarried,” away from the watchers ; 
and the lord of the vineyard “went into a far country;” 
and, in the parable of “The Talents,” the owner of the 
money was “a man traveling into a far country.” 

In the open-minded life of a spiritual man, the Lord seems 
to be present, especially in the principles of human life. But, 
in the many external details of the sensuous life, amid the 
works and pleasures of the outward mind, the presence of the 
Lord is not nearly so marked: and, at times, He seems 
absent. For the outward and sensuous mind is dull and 
obscure in its perceptions of good and truth. 


262 


Parables of the New Testament. 


SLUMBERING AND SLEEPING. 

Spiritually, when a man is immersed in sensuous life, he 
is slumbering and sleeping; he is not wide awake to th e 
inward realities of spiritual life, as he is when in a high and 
spiritual state of mind. Slumber relates to the dull state of 
the natural will; and sleep refers to the obscure state of the 
natural understanding. So, when men are instructed in the 
truths of the .Word, they are left amid the things of the 
world, to practise what they have been taught; and thus to 
confirm these principles, in the life. 

Even the wise must live in the world, and must be useful 
in external things. This natural world is not their final 
home ; and, while here, they cannot enter fully into the felici¬ 
ties of regenerate life. They all, comparatively, “slumber 
and sleep,” till the Bridegroom comes, to call them more 
aClively into the blessings of conjunction with heaven. Men 
and nations must pass through stages of growth and devel¬ 
opment, until they come into conditions ripe for judgment. 
They must fill up the measure of their character. 

THE MIDNIGHT. 

But, when their day, or state, draws to a close, a new 
state begins. This is the “midnight” spoken of in the par¬ 
able ; it is the end of one day, and the beginning of the next 
day; it is a time of change, and of judgment. 

THE CRY. 

“There was a cry made.” A cry is the announcement 
of an event. So, in the natural mind, when its states are 
ripe for judgment, and new states are about to come, there 
is an inward announcement, an intimation that the Lord is 
more that usually present, in His truth, as known in the 
mind. When the truth stirs up a man’s mind, is recalls to 
the man the Divine origin of the truth, and the presence of 


263 


The Ten Virgins . 

the Lord in His truth. “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh.” 

Literally, a cry is the effect of a strong impression made 
upon us. But, spiritually, the cry means the impression, 
itself, the state of the mind, which expresses itself in the 
cry. 

It is midnight in the Church, at the end of an old Church, 
and the beginning of a new Church, when the people that 
walked in mental darkness have seen a great spiritual light, 
and have recognized in that light, the coming of the Lord, 
to draw His Church into closer relation to Himself. 

THE BRIDEGROOM COMING. 

The Lord comes, when the Church is ready to receive 
Him; when “the bride hath made herself ready.” The 
New-Jerusalem began to descend to men, when men were 
prepared to receive it. And, in every case, the new and 
higher condition comes, by bringing a judgment upon the 
old conditions; and by separating the old from the new. 

MEETING THE LORD. 

We “go out to meet” our Lord, spiritually, in our affec¬ 
tions, thoughts and condudl. When the light of truth im¬ 
presses us, we are to go out from the midnight darkness of 
sensuous life, to seek conjunction with the Lord, in His truth. 
The Lord comes to us in spiritual principles; and we “go 
out to meet Him,” in a life according to those principles. 
Every truth calls us to “go out to meet” the Lord, in prac¬ 
tising that truth. 


TRIMMING THEIR LAMPS. 

“Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.” 
To arise, spiritually, is to arouse the will to activity. To 
“trim our lamp,” is to bring our intellect into a&ivity, to 
make use of our knowledge. The virgins, in arising, repre- 


264 Parables of the New Testament. 

sent the men of the Church lifting up their minds to a higher 
plane of thought. And, in trimming their lamps, they repre¬ 
sent the men of the Church setting their intelle&ual knowl¬ 
edge in order, according to the docTrine of the Church. 

Both the wise and the foolish arose, and both trimmed 
their lamps. So, in the Church, both the sincere and insin¬ 
cere attend the Church, and learn the dodtrines. But the 
two classes soon show their difference in character. The 
wise arise to a permanent state of spiritual enlightenment; 
but the foolish fall away into darkness. 

HAVING NO OIL. 

The foolish virgins found that their lamps had gone out, 
and that they had no more oil. “ Lamps ” are the knowledges 
of truth, the dodtrines known to the memory. And the fool- 
lish, in the dull slumber and sleep of sensuous life, having no 
inward love for good and truth, no heavenly oil, found their 
minds without any element of life, with which to receive new 
intelligence. During their life in the world, their love of evil 
had extinguished their intelligence, and had taken away their 
interest in the truths of heaven. 

Evils in the will and falses in the understanding, and sins 
in the conduct, unfit a man for any genuine intelligence in 
spiritual things, and for any inward feeling of joyful response 
to the coming of the Lord. Even evil men have a certain 
love of acquiring knowledge. But they have no warm love 
of the truth itself as a spiritual principle of human life. And 
when the judgment comes, their merely intellectual interest 
in the doctrines of the church will not feed their minds, nor 
promote spiritual intelligence. 

But, when the light of truth, at the judgment, shows all 
men the necessity of a love for good and truth, the foolish 
begin to cast about, to see how they can attain the measure 
of spiritual manhood. 


The Ten Virgins. 


265 


ASKING FOR OIL. 

They say to the wise, “ Give us of your oil, for our lamps 
are gone out.” They seek to trust in the goodness and love 
which are in others; they rely on a “ Vicarious Atonement,” 
and on a “Justification by faith alone.” But no man can 
have genuine faith, unless it be inwardly filled with love to 
God and to man. The faith which is “alone” is a spurious 
faith. The blood of Christ is the spiritual truth of the Lord, 
loved, believed, and pra< 5 ticed. 

For instance: suppose a dying invalid has healthy blood 
transfused into his body, from the arm of a healthy man. Is 
he saved by the blood? Yes; but not by the shedding of 
the blood ; but by the life of the blood ; by blood received, 
made his own, appropriated, used as his own. Only thus 
can a spiritually dying man be saved by the spiritual blood 
of Christ, when he receives the Divine Truth into his own 
heart, and uses it as his own principle of a6tual life, circulat¬ 
ing through his whole mental system. 

THE REFUSAL. 

And so the wise answered the foolish, “ Not so; lest there 
be not enough for us and you; but go ye rather to them 
that sell, and buy for yourselves.” No creed, no Church, and 
no Saviour, can give us the oil of love, or goodness, unless, 
as of ourselves, we go and procure it. A man may teach 
truth to another, but he cannot give goodness. Goodness, 
love, must be acquired by every man, for himself. Every 
man must go to the Lord, to procure goodness, in the daily 
practice of the Lord’s truth. If any man acquires goodness, 
he must buy it; he must pay for it, by giving up his evils. 

In the coming of the Lord to the Church, He will find 
many in the knowledge of do< 5 trine. But those who have 
knowledge only, will have empty lamps, and no oil of love 
to keep their knowledge in daily use. And such cannot en¬ 
ter into the marriage-feast; they cannot be in mental states 


266 


Parables of the New Testament . 


capable of entering into the felicities of conjunction with the 
Lord; for conjunction with the Lord, which is regeneration, 
takes place with a man in the degree in which there is 
formed, in his mind, a spiritual marriage of good in his will 
and truth in his understanding. When these mental partners 
are united in the mind, heaven is opened to the mind, and 
the man enters in to the marriage-supper of the Lord. 

ENTERING IN TO THE FEAST. 

Those who are ready, or prepared, enter in with the 
Lord, into a heavenly state; and the door of the mind is 
shut against all things that are not in condition to enter hea¬ 
ven. 

It is so in our individual life. When we are seeking re¬ 
generation, there are many worldly desires and ideas of our 
natural minds, which intrude themselves, and ask to be ad¬ 
mitted to our confidence and esteem. Our spiritual minds 
arise, and look upward; they acknowledge the Lord, and 
seek his righteousness. And we begin to experience a new 
quality of life. Love feeds our intelligence; and we use our 
knowledge for good purposes. But all our merely super¬ 
ficial pride of knowledge, and other intellectual conceits, seek 
to pass into our regenerating character. But the door is 
shut against them. They have no capacity for heaven. The 
door that is shut is in themselves, in their own character; 
they shut out the heavens. 

Thus, the parable teaches us that heaven can be given to 
those only who are prepared for heaven ; i. e ., who are hea¬ 
venly in character. If any others should be admitted among 
the angels, such angelic company would not seem heavenly, 
to the evil. For heaven is not merely a place, but a state, 
or condition. Men fix their character by their lives. And 
he who lives himself into the character of a devil, cannot 
live in the atmosphere of heaven. 


The Ten Virgins. 


267 


“I KNOW YOU NOT.” 

Evil men think of a heaven as a desirable place, accord¬ 
ing to their expedition ; and so they may imagine that they 
desire to be in heaven. But it would not be a heaven to 
them. And the Lord would say to them, “ I know you 
not;” i. e., He does not know them as having anything hea- 
enly in their character. “ The Lord knoweth the way of the 
upright;” but He does not know, as His, the way of the 
evil man. Heaven is a condition of love, faith and obedience. 
And those, only, can enter into a heavenly condition, who 
have the oil of genuine love, to keep alive their light of in¬ 
telligence ; who know the truth, and love to live by it. “ If 
ye know these things, blessed are ye, if ye do them.” 

The Lord is said not to know those who, spiritually, do 
not know the Lord, as their Lord, loved and obeyed. “I 
know you not;” there is nothing in you that responds to 
My Divine principles of life. You can not live in heaven, 
because you are not willing to receive the principles which 
make heaven. For heaven is a pure state of unselfish love, 
of innocence, and of spiritual intelligence; and you are in an 
impure state of selfish affedtions, of dodtrines without good¬ 
ness, of lamps without oil. 


FIVE. 

From the fadt that there were five wise and five foolish 
virgins, we are not to infer that exadlly half of the world, or 
of Church members, are saved, and half lost. In the inter¬ 
pretation of a parable, we must remember that the lesson 
intended is in spiritual principles, not merely in external 
fadts. The Lord’s Word treats of spiritual things; and we 
must draw spiritual inferences from its figurative teachings. 
The Word does not teach mere natural science, but spiritual 
science. Its lessons are not about mathematical quantities, 
but spiritual qualities. 

The number, five* represents a part, or a few. Numer- 


268 


Parables of the New Testament. 


ically, it is probable that much more than half of the human 
race will be saved. But they will not all be saved in the 
same degree of heavenly life. There are many degrees of 
heavenly life. “ In My Father’s house are many mansions.” 
But no man will enter into any of the heavenly societies, ex¬ 
cept as a result of regeneration, that is, of shunning evils as 
sins, and doing good, in the name of the Lord. 

WATCHING. 

“Watch, therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the 
hour wherein the Son of Man cometh.” And here, again, 
though the literal sense speaks of times, the spiritual sense 
treats of qualities, and of states of life. The day and the 
hour are states of affedfion and of thought, from our will and 
understanding. We have need to watch, interiorly and ex¬ 
teriorly ; to watch our ends, purposes, motives, in our heart; 
to watch our mental causes, the principles which are operat¬ 
ing in our understandings; and to watch our works, or 
condudt, to see that they are the embodiment of the com¬ 
mandments of our Lord. 

In our external life, we are alert and watchful against fire 
and flood, and against moth and rust, and deadly poisons. 
And it behooves us to keep spiritual watch against the 
deadly influence of evils and falsities and sins, which are 
likely to sap our spiritual strength. We are to watch, not 
merely against outward foes, but more especially against our 
own evil inclinations and false notions. 

And, in watching, we are not to be governed by natural 
fear, which paralyzes activity, but by the love which finds its 
joy in keeping the Lord’s commandments. If we indulge 
our evils, we can not tell in what hour, or state, of moral 
and spiritual weakness, we may begin a downward course 
of life. 

As the sun, with its heat and light, is in every ray that 
it sends forth to us, so the Lord is in every truth that ma^es 
itself known to us. Such a truth is both our Redeemer and 


The Ten Virgins. 


269 


our Judge. Our natural mind may not recognize either the 
Divine influence, or its own dangers. And so, to watch, we 
must have light. So, in the truth of the Lord’s Word, as 
taught in the doctrines of the Church, we have lamps of 
do6trine, which may be filled with the warm oil of a love for 
the truth, and for the good which the truth teaches; and by 
these we may clearly see the quality of the things that are 
within our own natural minds, as well as in our surroundings. 
“And what I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch.” 


270 


Parables of the Nezv Testament. 


XIX. 

€1)C €alcnr£. 

(MATTHEW XXV. 14-30.) 

THE LAW OF USE. 


SUMMARY. 

Man lives in the use of what the Lord gives him. 
And the fulness, the quality, and the degree, of each 
man’s spiritual life, is measured by the use which he 
makes of the Lord’s gifts. 

THE CONTEXT. 

In the chapter containing the text, there are two 
parables and a comparison: “The Ten Virgins,” “The 
Talents,” and “The Sheep and the Goats.” All of these 
treat of the judgment, at the coming of the Lord. But 
these accounts are not mere repetitions; they are views 
taken from different stand-points, and showing different 
aspe6ts of the judgment. The parable of “The Ten 
Virgins” illustrates the judgment as it a6ts upon the af¬ 
fections of the people of the Church. The present para¬ 
ble, of “The Talents,” displays, more especially, the op¬ 
eration of the judgment upon the understanding of the 
man of the Church. And the account of “The Sheep 
and the Goats” exhibits the effe6ts of the Lord’s coming 
and judgment upon the deeds of men. Thus, in the 
three accounts, the three departments of man’s life are 
covered, the will, the understanding, and the action. 



The Talents. 


271 


In Luke xix., there is the parable of “The Pounds,” 
which, though not identical with the parable of “The 
Talents,” so greatly resembles it in essential features, 
that an understanding of the spirit and purpose of either 
of these parables will enable the reader to comprehend 
the other. 


THE LITERAL SENSE. 

In the common translation, the fourteenth verse reads 
thus, “For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travel¬ 
ing,” etc. And the words “the kingdom of heaven is” 
are in italics, to indicate that no such words are found in 
the Greek original, but that they have been supplied by the 
translators, to complete the supposed sense. This form is 
used, probably, because many of the parables begin with 
words about the kingdom of heaven. But our text fol¬ 
lows the account of “The Ten Virgins ;” thus : “Watch, 
therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour 
wherein the Son of Man cometh. For, as a man travel¬ 
ling,” etc. And the sense must be that “the Son of Man 
is as a man travelling,” etc. 

THE MAN TRAVELLING. 

The “man” is the Lord, Jesus Christ, who, as the 
one God of heaven and earth, gives to men all that they 
have. But when the Lord has given to men all necessary 
knowledges of truth, He permits them to apply these 
knowledges, in their daily life, and as if they could do so 
by themselves, and in their own power. 

The Lord seems to put these things in men’s minds, 
and then to go away, and leave men to work out their 
own salvation. The Lord does not go away ; but it so 
appears to the man. In the little practical details of every¬ 
day natural life, the man has no sensation of the Lord’s 
presence. If it were not so, the natural man would not 
feel himself to be in freedom. 


272 Parables of the New Testament . 

Practically, it is the man who goes away from the 
Lord, because the man, having communed with the Lord, 
in the understanding of principles, goes out into the sens¬ 
uous life of the world, to apply his knowledge. But it 
seems, to him, that the Lord has gone away, to a “ far 
country/’ because the man’s sensuous life is far removed 
from the interior life, in which he sees the Lord’s influ¬ 
ence and presence. 


THE SERVANTS. 

The “man travelling” called his “servants.” These 
servants are all who are in the Church, all who profess 
to serve the Lord. In faCt, all men ought to regard 
themselves as His servants. 

THE TALENTS. 

Riches are means of procuring necessary things. The 
“talents” represent the knowledges of truth and of good, 
held in the man’s memory, ready to be used in procuring 
truth and good, as living principles of the heart and 
life. “Knowledge is power.” So, by means of knowl¬ 
edge, man is able to know and distinguish good from 
evil, and truth from falsity, and holiness from sin. The 
accumulations of things known are called knowledges. 
These are the mental “talents,” or riches of the mind. 

The Lord gives these “knowledges” to men, through 
various means; and He also gives to every man a faculty 
of perceiving the truths which are in the knowledges. 
And, if the man loves the Lord, and obeys Him, he will 
see the truth, as truth, and will know it to be true. But 
indifference to truth, and opposition to good, and indulg¬ 
ence in evil and falsity, will blind the man’s mind to the 
light of truth. And then, though the man may have 
knowledges of truth and good, he will not apply them to 
his daily life, and will not receive any spiritual benefit 
from them. 


The Talents. 


273 


THE COMMON MORAL. 

Indirectly, we may draw the common moral from the 
text, and say that all our abilities and possessions, of all 
kinds, are entrusted to us, by our Lord, for daily use, in 
serving Him, in a good, true, useful life; i. e. y in per¬ 
forming uses. For serving the Lord is not merely in 
external worship, but principally in living a life of uses. 
He who serves the Lord, is he who lives on the principles 
which the Lord teaches, and whose whole life is a service 
of the Lord, in uses. The “services” of the Church are 
merely means of bringing men into condition of heart to 
serve the Lord in their practical life. But, in the exaCt 
meaning, the “talents” are our knowledges, all that we 
know about good and truth. 

NUMBERS. 

It is said that the lord “gave five talents to one ser¬ 
vant ; to another, two, and to another, one ; to every man 
according to his several ability.” Literally, numbers 
express quantity ; but, spiritually, they represent differ¬ 
ences in quality, or character. In the parables, numbers 
are used symbolically, not mathematically. For the par¬ 
ables, like every other part of the Lord’s Word, have an 
inward, spiritual meaning, treating of spiritual principles, 
and their application to practical life. 

DIVINE GIVING. 

We are not to suppose that the Lord, intentionally and 
arbitrarily, gives men the knowledges of truth in different 
quantities, or in different degrees. The differences are 
in the men, themselves. The Lord gives, as the text 
says, “to every man according to his several ability;” 
i. e. } his ability to receive knowledges. And his ability 
depends upon his willingness and his efforts. 


274 Parables of the New Testament. 

Thus, each man practically determines for himself 
both the quantity and the quality of his spiritual knowl¬ 
edges. The Lord would give all the blessings of heaven 
to every man, if the man would receive them. So Jesus 
said, “Ye would not come unto Me, that ye might have 
life.” And so the Lord can actually give mto each man 
only what the man will take. 

The three numbers represent the three classes of men, 
in the external Church. All in the Church receive some 
knowledges, by instruction. But their states of reception 
are very different. 


FIVE. 

The number five, as a symbol, denotes a few, or some. 
It is half of ten, which represents completeness, as ten 
fingers, ten commandments, etc. There were five loaves, 
from which Jesus once fed the multitude. David took 
five smooth stones, when he went to fight with Goliath. 
The pool of Bethesda had five porches. He who had 
five talents given to him, represents a state of mind in 
which there is some knowledge of heavenly things, a few 
knowledges of good and truth, which the man may use, 
in daily life. 

TWO. 

Two, as a symbol, represents the joining of one with 
another ; i. e ., conjunction, or union. It refers, especially, 
to the conjunction of affeCtion and thought, of love and 
faith, of good and truth. The man to whom two talents 
were given, represents the state of mind in which the 
knowledge of truth is united to the love of truth. 

ONE. 

But the number one, when used in opposition to two, 
means a state of disjunction. Thus, the man with one 


The Talents. 


275 


talent represents a state of mind in which there is knowl¬ 
edge, but knowledge only, and no love of truth. 

FIVE, TWO AND ONE. 

In one sense, the five talents represent knowledges 
stored up in the mind, from infancy, as a few “remains,” 
or states of good and truth imparted to the child, by the 
Lord, and laid up, within him, for his future use. And, 
in this connexion, the two talents represent the knowl¬ 
edges received by instruction, in later childhood, and 
united with a love of truth, by regeneration. And the 
one talent represents knowledge acquired in youth and 
manhood, and laid up in the memory only, and not 
joined with any love of good and truth. 

TRADING. 

The man who received five talents, “ went and traded ” 
with them, and gained “other five talents.” And the 
man with two talents traded with his, and doubled them. 
Buying and selling represent procuring knowledges of 
good and truth, and teaching them. Thus, trading with 
the talents means increasing them, by using them. 
Knowledge, properly put to good use, makes more knowl¬ 
edge. This is the case with both those who have five 
talents, or a few knowledges, and those who have two 
talents, or who join their knowledges to the love of truth 
and good. 


WENT. 

It is said the man “went and traded;” i. e., he went 
out into the things of daily life, and there used and ap^ 
plied his knowledges. And such application increased 
his knowledges, by practice. 


276 


Parables of the New Testavient. 


DOUBLING THE TALENTS. 

Each wise man doubled his number of talents; for 
each traded with what he had, and made as much more 
as he began with. Thus, the use of our knowledges dou¬ 
bles them, by application; i. e., we apply them, in prac¬ 
tical deeds of natural life ; and, to the same extent, they 
return to us an exa£t equivalent in spiritual life. From 
natural, they become spiritual. They are doubled, in 
quality; because, as we use them in our natural life, they 
are opened to us, as new things, on the spiritual side of 
our life, also. And there is no other way to attain the 
spiritual life of any truth, than to practise the same truth 
in its natural form, and in our natural life. 

And they are doubled in another sense; i. e., they are 
put forth from our understanding, and then elevated more 
fully into our will, in the conjunction of our knowledges 
with our affections. 

DIGGING, HIDING, ETC. 

“But he who had received one, went and digged in 
the earth, and hid his lord’s money.’’ He who has knowl¬ 
edges of truth, without love of truth and good, does not 
put his knowledges to practical good use. To dig, or 
search into the earth, means to study, to investigate, to 
try to get at the facts of knowledge, as facts. To hide 
the talent is to make no use of it. 

THE EARTH. 

The earth represents our natural mind. To hide the 
talent in the earth, is to immerse our knowledges in the 
things of our outward, sensuous life; to use them for low 
and external motives, such as mere pleasure, or reputation, 
or selfish influence. Then, though we have the form of 
truth, in our knowledges, we have neither its spirit nor 


The Talents. 


277 


its use. We may have a kind of outward faith, but it will 
be “faith alone,” without love, and without good fruits. 
And “by their fruits ye shall know them.” 

TIMES. 

“After a long time, the lord of those servants cometh, 
and reckoneth with them.” Times represent states, or 
conditions of life. When each man’s state is ripe for judg¬ 
ment, the Lord comes to him; not as a matter of punish¬ 
ment, but as fruit becomes ripe, and comes to seed, by filling 
the measure of its growth. So, when a man’s character is 
formed, the judgment comes, because the man lives him¬ 
self into a state of judgment. The judgment ascribes to 
each man the character which he has formed for himself. 
What he has made, he can keep. If he makes nothing of 
spiritual character, he receives nothing; and he loses even 
the knowledges of truth and good which he had, but would 
not use. 


THE COMING OF THE LORD. 

Each man brings his gains to the lord, and acknowl¬ 
edges them to be the lord’s. So, every regenerate man 
acknowledges the Lord as his Master. Having used his 
knowledges, and procured genuine wisdom and intelligence, 
he acknowledges his indebtedness to the Lord, for all that 
he has. He has doubled his talents; they are no longer 
natural, only, but spiritual, also. 

THE COMMENDATION. 

The lord commends the servant, as “good and faith¬ 
ful;” i. e ., good, in the will, or heart, and faithful in the 
understanding, and in the conduct. “Well done,” is the 
approval of the Lord, communicated to the man’s con¬ 
science. The man, by being faithful in the few things 


2 7 8 


Parables of the New Testament. 


seen in this world, develops a disposition to love good. 
And then the spiritual part of his mind is opened, and 
he obtains control over the many passions and thoughts 
of his natural mind. 

The natural idea is, that a man, though in humble 
circumstances, in this world, shall be exalted, in the next 
world, to a position of honor and power. But the spirit¬ 
ual sense rises high above this selfish idea, and shows 
that, in regeneration, the man shall be exalted to a state 
of mind in which he shall have power over himself, his 
interiors controlling his exteriors. This is a far greater 
promise. 


ENTERING INTO JOY. 

“Enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” Literally, 
this expression seems to refer to the Oriental custom of 
making a grand feast, at the return of the lord, or mas¬ 
ter, from a journey ; and of inviting to the feast, those 
servants who had been faithful to their master’s interests. 
In such cases, bond-servants were sometimes given their 
freedom, and placed in authority, to rule over others. 

But, spiritually, to enter into the joy of our Lord, is 
to enter into conjun<5tion with our Lord, by love and 
obedience, and thus to receive from our Lord the elements 
of heavenly joy, the joy of loving good and of doing 
good. Then, in our daily life, every natural affedtion 
will be inwardly filled with the inexpressible joy of spirit¬ 
ual affe&ion. 


A HARD MAN. 

• 

Even the man with one talent, though he does not put 
that talent to any good use, acknowledges it to be the 
lord’s. But he calls the lord a “hard man, reaping 
where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast 
not strewed.” Faith alone, or knowledge alone, without 


The Talents. 


279 


love, brings no increase, and gives no spiritual joy. Not 
coming into conjunction with the Lord, the unregenerate 
natural man does not comprehend the Lord’s chara&er. 

Those who experience the warmth of love to the Lord, 
know His love, and love to work in His service. They 
know, by experience, the truth of His saying, “My yoke 
is easy, and My burden is light.” But men who will not 
receive good from the Lord, regard Him as hard and 
unfair, demanding that men shall love good, and do good, 
when, as they say, He did not give them any love for 
good and truth. They say He is demanding to gather a 
harvest from men, without having sown any seed of good 
and truth in them. 

The man who hid his one talent did not seem to think 
he had done anything wrong. He rather seemed to 
charge the lord with wrong-doing. Evil men think the 
Lord to be hard, because they see that He is opposed to 
their evils ; and because their character is opposed to His 
character. It is a hardship to them, to be asked to do 
good. They do not believe in the Divine providence. 
They boast that they have kept the letter of the law ; and 
then they confidently say to the Lord, “We return to you 
the talent you gave us. Here you have what belongs to 
you. ’ ’ Their fear is natural and sensuous fear. They 
have procured knowledge from the letter of the Word; 
but they have not examined themselves, to see their own 
evils, and to avoid sins. 

But, as the master replied 1 6 the servant, if a man 
thinks the Lord to be hard and severe, this is increased 
reason why the man should put his talent, his knowledge, 
to pra&ical use. The Lord requires use, even from the 
natural man. Even if he worked for reward, he should 
have done the good, to get the reward. 

WICKED AND SLOTHFUL. 

This servant was addressed as a “wicked and slothful 


280 Parables of the New Testavient. 

servant;” i. e ., one who is both false in thought, and evil 
in will. He should have put the talent “to the exchang¬ 
ers i. e ., he should have brought his knowledge to his 
rational thought, which, under the Lord’s guidance, would 
have added spiritual knowledge to his outward knowledge. 
Then he would have acknowledged the Lord, both nat¬ 
urally and spiritually, in a good and joyful life. 

But, by making no good use of his knowledge, he has 
not made it a part of his mind. And, entering the spirit¬ 
ual world, he will not desire any knowledge of good and 
truth; and, hence, he will rejedl from his mind, even the 
form of knowledge. Not being grounded in his will, or 
in his condudl, it will not be in his chara<5ter. 

CHARACTER. 

Every man, by his will and his life, procures to himself 
a certain quality of character. He has a certain measure 
of willingness to receive good and truth, or evil and fals¬ 
ity. This measure is his own. In the other life, he will 
fill it up to its fulness. If, here, he makes no use of truth 
known, he will drop it even from his memory, in the other 
world. Such knowledges of good and truth would be 
against his ruling-love, and, hence, he would reje<5l them. 

GIVING TO THOSE WHO HAVE. 

But the knowledges of evil men may be of use to good 
men, because evil men can teach these knowledges. Thus 
they can be given to those who have ten talents, even 
though spiritually taken from evil men. “Unto every 
one that hath, shall be given,” because the disposition to 
acquire knowledges, from love of good and of truth, fits 
the man to grow more and more able to receive heavenly 
things. And a man carries into the spiritual world all 
knowledges of good and truth which he has, while in this 
world, put to good use. Faith with love is like light with 



The Talents. 


281 

heat, in summer, when vegetation grows and flourishes • 
but faith without love is like light without heat, in winter, 
when vegetation dies. 

Thus, a man receives intelligence and wisdom accord¬ 
ing to the quantity and quality of his love for good and 
truth. And, if he has not acquired such love, then, in 
the next world, his own character will take away even that 
knowledge which he superficially had, on earth ; or, as it 
is said in Luke, ‘ ‘ from him shall be taken even that which 
he seemeth to have’ for he does not really and inwardly 
have it. 


OUTER DARKNESS. 

“And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer 
darkness ; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 
The literal reference is to the servants shut out from the 
feast, on the return of the master. But, spiritually, the 
darkness is in the man’s own mind, the falsity which shuts 
out truth. Darkness may be ignorance of truth ; but 
outer darkness is rejection of truth. “If the light that is 
in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness.” Evil 
men “love [spiritual] darkness, their deeds being evil.” 

WEEPING, AND GNASHING OF TEETH. 

Weeping is the sorrow induced by the rejection of 
good and truth. Gnashing of teeth is the clashing of false 
principles against the truth. Evil men, confirmed in false 
principles, would delight to destroy all good and true 
things, if possible, like a chained and angry dog, gnash¬ 
ing his teeth in impotent rage. 

The teeth, used to prepare food for the stomach, re¬ 
present the external, sensuous thought, which prepares 
various things for mental digestion. Sensuous men do not 
see truth, as truth, but dispute about it. Such disputes 
have raged in the churches, when theology was discussed 


282 


Parables of the New Testament. 


by men who had no insight into spiritual truth. Such 
disputes are going on in the hells. Representatively, 
they are called the “gnashing of teeth.’’ 

SPIRITUAL LIFE IN NATURAL LIFE. 

This parable teaches us that spiritual life it not sepa¬ 
rated from natural life, but within it, as the soul within 
the body. And our spiritual life is to be built up, in and 
by a good natural life, applying known truths to our con- 
du< 5 L And we sin not only by what we do that is wrong, 
but also by what we fail to do, of right and good things. 
We have no spiritual light, no knowledge, that we can 
not use, if we will. And our failure to use it, will result 
in our loss of it, and of its possible blessing. 

Men are different, in mind and in education. And we 
cannot avoid such differences; nor are we necessarily re¬ 
sponsible for them. We are not responsible for our in¬ 
herited capacities, but for our use of them. And use will 
greatly increase and open our capacities. There will be, 
in heaven, a home for every sincere man, who will make 
good use of his capacities, and of his knowledge, in shun¬ 
ning evil, and in doing good; and that home will be a 
heavenly home to him, the kind of a home which he per¬ 
sonally desires and needs. In the New-Church, much has 
been given to us, in the knowledge of the spiritual sense 
of the Lord’s Word, as well as in the letter; and it be¬ 
hooves us to watch our mental states, and to avoid parad¬ 
ing our knowledges, without putting them to pra6tical 
use, in regeneration. And, especially, it behooves us to 
avoid feeling contempt for others, who, though they have 
not our quantity of knowledges, may have a much better 
quality of love for good and truth, and more beautiful 
and useful lives. 


The Seed Growing Secretly, 


283 


XX. 

€f)c J>ccb <£3rotuiug J'ccrctlji. 

(mark iv. 26-29.) 

SECRESY OF DIVINE OPERATION. 


THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

The kingdom of God is that condition of man’s mind, in 
which the Lord rules, by His good and truth, His love and 
wisdom. Wherever this condition exists, there is the king¬ 
dom of God established. • “ The kingdom of God is within 
you.” This kingdom of God is formed in man, by implant¬ 
ing in his mind the truths of the Lord’s Word. 


THE SEED. 

The seed is truth. And every seed of truth carries with¬ 
in it the vitality of good. This vitality causes the seed of 
truth to sprout, and to spring up, into something living, 
wherever the conditions of growth are present. Heaven is 
implanted in all men who receive truth and good; i. <?., who 
receive truth into good ground, into a natural will disposed 
to love the truth. The ground represents the man’s own 
mind, whose condition is according to the state of his ruling- 
love. A seed grows, because, as a vessel, it is capable of 
receiving and using the inflowing life of the Lord. So it is 
with the human mind: according to the state of his mind, 
as a vessel, each man receives one or another degree and 
quality of human life. 



284 


Parables of the New Testament. 


THE SOWER. 

The sower, here, is the man, himself. In some of the 
parables, the sower represents the Lord, because the Lord’s 
part of the work is there treated of; but, in this parable, 
the man’s part of the work is brought into contrast with the 
Lord’s part. It is the man’s part to prepare the ground, to 
sow the seed, and to reap the harvest. And it is the Lord’s 
part to give the secret growth of the seed, as well as to sup¬ 
ply the conditions, and to sustain the man in his labor. It 
can not be said that the Lord sleeps, nor that He does not 
know how the seed grows. 

PLANTING, ETC. 

Casting the seed into the ground here represents the 
man’s work of learning truth, from the Lord’s Word, and im¬ 
planting it in his mind. The springing up of the seed is the 
reception and operation of the truth in the man’s understand¬ 
ing ; and the growing is its reception and operation in his 
will. 


SECRET WORK OF REGENERATION. 

The regeneration of the man is accomplished while he is 
unconscious of its operation and progress. “ The wind blow- 
eth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but 
canst not tell whence it cometh, or whither it goeth; so is 
every one that is born of the spirit:” that is, the operation 
of the Lord’s spirit is known by its results; but the steps of 
its progress do not come to a man’s consciousness. 

SLEEPING AND RISING, ETC. 

Sleeping and waking, or rising, and night and day, repre¬ 
sent certain states of mind. When a man is in the clear 
light of truth, and his mind is elevated to see in that light, it 


The Seed Growing Secretly. 285 

is day-time, or daylight, in his mind and life. But when 
truths are not clear to him, but rather obscure, and he is 
mentally in the dark, then it is night, in his mental experi¬ 
ence. When his mind is aCtive in the light of spiritual truth, 
he is said to be awake, and to arise, and to go forth to per¬ 
form uses. But, when he relapses into merely sensuous, 
natural thoughts and feelings, and loses sight of great spirit¬ 
ual principles, he is said to fall asleep. Thus, briefly, to be 
asleep is to be in a natural-minded state, and to arise, or be 
awake, is to be in a spiritual-minded state. 

ALTERNATION. 

Now, in the course of a man’s life, he alternates between 
these two states, to a greater or less extent. At times, his 
mind is open to spiritual light, and spiritual things seem clear 
and certain. These are times of seeing truths. And these 
states must be followed by states of doing the truth, in prac¬ 
tical things, when the man must come down into the every¬ 
day common affairs of life, and carry out his principles. As 
he practises the truth, he becomes fitted to receive more 
truth. 

And so his life alternates between seasons of exaltation 
and instruction, and seasons of coming down and embodying 
instruction in his daily life. A man could not be always in 
a state of exaltation into the light, because he needs the sea¬ 
sons of application, at each stage of progress. By applica¬ 
tion of known truth, he brings his heart and life up to the 
measure of the truth that he knows. And, having advanced 
a step, that new step enables him to make another advance 
into the light of truth. 

Thus, each truth, known and practised, develops its cor¬ 
responding good ; and each good developed, leads to further 
truth. Thus, by alternating between arising and sleeping, a 
man is instructed, step by step, and also enabled to ultimate 
his principles, and to fix and confirm them in his practical 
daily life. 


286 


Parables of the New Testament. 


UNCONSCIOUS CHANGES. 

If a man merely sees the truth, he becomes a theorizer, 
only; and if he does not see the truth, he becomes a sensu¬ 
ous man. Regeneration goes on, in the man, while he does 
good, according to the truth that he knows. And this prac¬ 
tice of truth works a change in the man, unconsciously to 
himself. He experiences the change, when it comes; but 
he does not recognize its operation, in its coming. 

For the Lord inwardly leads man by love, and flows into 
his love, in his will. And, from the will, the Lord influences 
the man’s understanding. The more the man is willing to 
love good, the more he is disposed to see, and to consider, 
the truth. And a man does not have anything further than 
a general sensation of what flows into his love, with its affec¬ 
tions. But he has a manifest sensation of what flows into 
his understanding, because this takes definite form in his 
thought. 


SECRESY NECESSARY. 

We can see that a man must receive good into his will 
secretly, because the Lord must lead the man to reconstruct 
his whole character. The natural man is in a disorderly 
mental condition ; and he regards his own evils as good and 
delightful. But the Lord desires to lead the man out of dis¬ 
order, and into an orderly condition, in which he will hate 
evil and love good. 

But the man will not willingly oppose himself, at the 
Lord’s bidding, because he would thus feel himself to be 
forced by another person. But the Lord permits it to appear 
to the man that he leads himself, and that he makes changes 
in his charaCler of his own accord. Then the man feels free, 
because, in his outward thought, he thinks he is compelling 
himself, and is not forced by another. 

Thus, the Lord secretly implants in the man, as far as 
possible, a disposition to love good, and to seek a change 


The Seed Growing Secretly. 


287 


of chara&er. And so the man goes on, and cultivates good 
affe6tions and true thoughts, without seeing or knowing just 
how these things are brought about. 

ILLUSTRATIONS. 

It is not necessary to the farmer to know how seeds 
grow. If he does his part, preparing the ground, planting 
the seed, and attending to the conditions of growth, so far 
as they come under his knowledge and ability, and reaping, 
and caring for the harvest, he can eat the bread, as the result 
of the growth of the seed. 

And so, if a man will learn the truth, and do all that lies 
in his power to care for the growth of the truth in his mind, 
attending to the necessary conditions of growth, so far as 
they fall within his ability, he will secure the practical result 
of the growth of the truth in his mind and life, even when 
he does not know just how the Lord makes the implanted 
truth to sprout and grow to its harvest of pra< 5 tical good. 

So, in our physical life, we eat our food, and the food 
undergoes various operations, until it is digested, assimilated, 
and converted into blood, etc. But we have no manifest 
perception or sensation of what is going on within our bodies, 
during these operations. Yet we live, and secure the results 
of these operations, without knowing their methods and 
stages of progress. 

So, in spiritual life, the Lord carries on many of our men¬ 
tal operations, without our knowledge. As the farmer plants 
his seed, and sleeps and rises, night and day, and the seed 
springs up, and grows, he knows not how; so we learn the 
truth, and do our work, now in a spiritual state of mind, and 
now in a natural state; and yet an inward growth is going 
on, unperceived by us, yet operated by our ever-watchful 
Lord of love. 


288 


Parables of the New Testament. 


GUARDIAN ANGELS. 

The Lord leads and teaches man, through the means of 
angels and spirits. But the man does not see these minister¬ 
ing spirits, and, generally, has no sensation of their presence 
about him, nor of his intimate association with them. 

It is a law of the Divine Providence that a man should 
not, from any sensation in himself, see how good and truth 
flow in to him, from the Lord, nor how evil and falsity flow 
into him from the hells. Nor should he see how the Divine 
Providence secretly operates, within him, in favor of good, 
and against evil; because, if he saw these things, he would 
not feel free, and would not be able to a<5t freely, as of him¬ 
self, according to his reason. 

It is enough, if he knows and acknowledges these things, 
as spiritual principles of human life, taught in the doctrines 
of the Church, from the Lord’s Word. It would not be 
helpful to him, to know these things by outward sense, be¬ 
cause, then, he would so a<5t as to counteract their good in¬ 
fluence. 


ILLUSTRATION. 

We can easily imagine how it would be, with us, if we 
had not only to eat our food, but also to superintend all the 
processes which the food undergoes, from the eating to the 
distribution of its chemical elements to their appropriate 
places in our bodies. And it would be correspondingly hard 
for us to have to superintend all the inward operations of the 
Divine Providence, by which our mental food is carried 
through spiritual digestion, assimilation, and distribution 
throughout the various planes, degrees and departments of 
our minds. 


SEEN IN ITS RESULTS. 

But, while the Lord’s operations within our minds are not 
plainly seen, as to their methods and steps of progress, yet 


The Seed Growing Secretly . 


289 


their finished work is very plainly manifested. When the 
harvest comes, we see it and know it. When the man is 
regenerate, then he knows the fa<5f that the Lord has led him 
through many steps of gradual growth. And, then, he does 
not oppose the Lord’s leading. 

ILLUSTRATION. 

Now, while the farmer cannot produce growth of the seed, 
and does not know just how the seed grows, yet there is 
much that he can know and do. He can study the science 
and art of planting. He can learn to distinguish good seed 
from poor seed, and one kind of seed from another. He can 
prepare the land, and care for it; gathering up the weeds 
and stones, and keeping the fences in order. And so, if he 
does not harvest a good crop, there may be many things that 
were the sower’s fault. 

And, spiritually, there are many things that we can do, 
both in putting forth our own abilities, as of ourselves, and 
in preparing our minds to receive the Divine truth, and the 
continued influences of the Lord, through His guardian-an¬ 
gels, operating to produce growth in the truth, in our minds. 
And our failures to receive the results of such growth are 
our own fault, to the extent in which we have left our part 
of the work undone. 

It is enough for a man to know how to do his part, and 
to do it; i. e. y to keep the Lord’s commandments, shunning 
evil and doing good. It is useful and delightful to attain 
great intellectual knowledge of spiritual things ; for “ Knowl¬ 
edge is power.” But power is not of any use until it is ap¬ 
plied. And so, all our intelleClual knowledge is of no prac¬ 
tical use, except in its aClual application to shunning evil and 
doing good. 


CO-OPERATION. 

We must not expeCt the Lord to come to us, and, with 


290 Parables of the New Testament. 

irresistible influence, fill us with good, and expel our evils. 
In so far as we are willing to apply our good and truth, in 
our daily life, our Lord will make them grow, within us: 
i. e ., He will enlarge our love of good and truth, and our 
capacity to receive good and truth from Him. As we go on, 
as of ourselves, learning and practising the truth, He will car¬ 
ry on within us, secretly, but surely, all His wonderful works. 

THE EARTH BRINGING FORTH. 

Yet, practically, it seems to the man, that he does, of 
himself, all that is done. “For the earth bringeth forth of her¬ 
self.” This is the appearance. But it is not the actual fact, 
even literally. For the earth does not act, but is acted upon. 
Heat, light, the atmosphere, electricity, and other things, 
operate upon the earth, according to its condition. So, the 
natural mind of man, which' is signified by the earth, seems 
to bring forth of itself; and yet it does not do so; but it is 
acted upon, by various influences from the Lord. 

The vitality is not in the earth, but in the seed. So, the 
mind of man does not bring forth of itself. The vital energy 
is not in man, but in the seed of truth, from the Lord. But 
the man’s mind, like the ground, must have the necessary 
conditions ready. 


THE GRADUAL GROWTH. 

The seed springs up, and grows, “first, the blade, then 
the ear; after that, the full corn in the ear.” A man first re¬ 
ceives the truth as an idea, a mere sprout, or little blade. He 
thinks the idea is his own. Then he has received the truth 
as mere science, or knowledge, deposited in his memory. 
Afterwards, he sees the truth as a principle; and it is then a 
truth of faith, which he believes. But his natural thought is 
not yet in agreement with the truth. The corn is beginning 
to form, in the ear; but it is not yet ready for use. After¬ 
wards, the man sees the truth in its practical aspedl, as some- 


The Seed Growing Secretly. 


291 


thing good, which he can do. Then it is a truth of life, the 
full corn in the ear, ready for practical use. And when it is 
used, it becomes the good of life, in aCts of charity, or love 
to the neighbor. 

Thus, the man’s mind grows, and the truth grows, with 
him, and within him. The truth first enters into his memory; 
then into his understanding; then into his will. And this 
growth proceeds, as the man keeps the commandments in 
his natural life, from a principle of obedience to the truth of 
the Lord. 


VARIETIES OF RECEPTION. 

Men receive the truth differently, because the men, them¬ 
selves, are different. All through a man’s life, if he is regen¬ 
erating, he is receiving more and more of truth. And the 
manner in which each man receives new truth is according 
to the state of his mind. In all men, good is implanted by 
means of truth. In celestial men, characterized by the love 
of good, and who are highly regenerate, good is implanted 
by truths ; but truths do not stop in the memory, to be pon¬ 
dered over, nor in the understanding, to be reasoned about; 
but they pass at once into the will, the heart, which is in con¬ 
dition to receive them, and to apply them at once to life, in 
praClical good. 

But, with the spiritual man, (characterized by the love of 
truth, rather than by the love of good,) truths pass into the 
understanding, where they are subjected to reason, and 
gradually adopted as principles of faith. Thus a conscience 
(con-science, science with the man) is built up, in the spirit¬ 
ual man, from wh;ch he battles against evil and falsity. 

But the celestial man, receiving everything as practical 
good, is not governed by science, like the natural man, nor 
by conscience like the spiritual man. He is not governed 
merely by a known standard of right, but by a love of right, 
a delight in good, from which he is in the perception of good 
and of truth, which increases as his love increases. 


292 


Parables of the New Testament. 


THE SICKLE. 

“But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he 
putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.” The 
sickle, as a sharp knife, separating the grain from the stub¬ 
ble, represents the truth, especially the letter of the Lord’s 
Word, in its capacity of cutting apart, or separating, essen¬ 
tials from non-essential things, and of distinguishing good 
from evil. 

The grain is cut for use. And the threshing follows the 
cutting. So, in our minds, armed with the truths of the let¬ 
ter of the Divine Word, especially the Ten Commandments, 
we cut apart, or separate, truths from appearances; and, by 
rational thought, we mentally thresh out the pradlical good, 
for daily use. 


THE HARVEST. 

As the harvest is the good for which the farmer works, 
from the preparation of the ground, and through the plant¬ 
ing, weeding, etc.; so, in the Lord’s Providence, the practical 
good of life is the end in view, through all the operations 
and leadings of the Lord. And as the farmer, at each stage 
of his work, rejoices to see things moving on, in the right 
way, towards the harvest, so the Lord and His angels rejoice 
to see our minds attaining, at each stage of progress, a good 
and orderly condition, preparing for the harvest to come. 

So we rejoice to see our children progressing in an orderly 
way, towards regeneration. At each step, we rejoice to see 
the ground ready for the seecf of truth, and bringing the 
seed on towards maturity and harvest. So, our Lord and 
His angels are watching us, rejoicing to see us shunning evil 
and doing good. They delight in every good impulse of 
our love, every true thought, and every useful deed. They 
are doing all they can, to lead us to wisdom, and to turn us 
away from folly. 


The Seed Growing Secretly. 


293 


DOING OUR PART. 

But we must do our part, planting the seed, or learning 
the truth, and gathering the ripened grain in the harvest of 
pradlical good, in the daily life of love and usefulness. And 
we must make the bread, and eat it. We must make the 
good our own, or we do not fix it in our manhood. There 
is much that we cannot do, and which our Lord does for us, 
in the secret recesses of our hearts. And for these things 
we must trust, as the farmer trusts for the growth of the 
planted seed. “The secret things belong unto the Lord, 
our God ; but those things which are revealed belong unto 
us, and to our children, for ever, that we may do all the 
words of this law.” But there is much that we can do; and 
for this we are responsible. We can shun evils, in our affec¬ 
tions, in our thoughts, and in our condu<5L 

SPIRITUAL AND NATURAL STATES. 

A pradlical point arises just here: we need not worry 
ourselves because we are not always in a profound and spirit¬ 
ual state of mind. It is not so intended. This is the radical 
mistake of the hermit, who seeks to rise above the world, by 
flying from it. But the Lord intended us to learn the truth, 
and to put that truth into practice, in the world. He intended 
us to sleep and rise, night and day; i. e ., to alternate between 
natural and spiritual states, so that we can learn the truth, in 
our more exalted states, and pradlise it in our natural states. 

But, while we can not be always in a spiritual state, but 
must often be in natural states, we shall never need to-be in 
evil natural states. The real danger does not arise from the 
world outside of us, but from the world within us. Thus, we 
recognize the great pradHcal importance of learning simply 
to go on, in a good natural life, keeping the commandments, 
without worry, without display, and without fear; not seek¬ 
ing ambitiously, to do some great thing, but contented to do 
the plain, simple things of a quiet and useful life; knowing 
that, in all these things, the Lord is bringing to harvest every 
truth that we carry into our practical life. 


294 


Parables of the New Testament. 


ENCOURAGEMENT. 

And this should be an encouraging thought, to us, be¬ 
cause we can all do these things. We are not required to have 
great natural intellects, or learning, or riches, or social posi¬ 
tion, or beauty, or fine clothing, or any other merely natural 
conditions; but we are all required to keep the command¬ 
ments, shunning evil, and doing good. And when we do 
this, our Lord is giving us an inward growth which shall, in 
the world to come, make all our conditions and surroundings 
in keeping with our character, and, hence, with all our un¬ 
selfish longings and aspirations. 

This world is but the school-house, and the world to come 
is the real life. Very few externals are essential to a truly 
happy life on earth. And no abundance of externals will 
produce happiness, in the mind which has not attained the 
elements of regenerate spiritual life. 

OUR CHILDREN. 

The parable suggests our duty to our children, to bring 
them up for the spiritual world, and not merely for the nat¬ 
ural world; to teach them genuine truth; and to set them 
a good example; to prepare their minds for the Lord’s work 
of regeneration ; remembering that, while the growth of the 
seed is secret, so its failure to grow is secret. We must not 
infer that, because we can not see what is going on in our 
own mind, or our child’s mind, therefore it must be doings 
well. It may be doing very badly. The seeds of evil weeds 
may be secretly growing underneath the surface. Under a 
smooth exterior, there may be very bad conditions. That 
depends upon whether we have well prepared the ground, 
planted good and well-sele£ted seed, kept out the weeds and 
stones, kept the necessary fences in good order; and, in all 
other things, have done our part, wisely and well. “If ye 
know these things, blessed are ye, if ye do them.” 


The Blind Leading the Blind. 


295 


XXL 

3Tfjc 2Miit& Jtcatiing tljc 2&linD. 

(LUKE VI. 39.) 

EVIL INDUCES FALSITY. 


BLINDNESS. 

The ignorant instru&or misleads both himself and his 
pupil. 

Physical blindness represents mental blindness. Those 
who are spiritually blind are those whose mental eyes are 
closed against the light of truh. For truth must be seen in 
its own light. Those who are in the belief and practice of 
false principles are not in the light of truth, and do not see 
in such light. They have eyes, but they see not. 

DEGREES OF BLINDNESS. 

But there are degrees of blindness, mentally, as well as 
physically. Blindness may be the result of a natural defect, 
or of our own bad habits. So, spiritually, blindness may be 
from ignorance, or from evil. 

And there are several varieties of mental blindness; viz., 
First, Ignorance of truth, where the truth is not known, at 
all. Second, Error in doctrine, where the truth is known, 
as doctrine, but innocently misunderstood. Third, Falsi¬ 
fication of truth, where the truth is known theoretically, but 
misapplied, to suit the man’s selfish desires. Fourth, Re¬ 
jection of truth from the will, where the man is not willing to 



296 Parables of the New Testament . 

receive the truth, because he feels its opposition to himself. 
“The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.” He 
“ hateth the light, his deeds being evil.” 

In the third case, the man makes the law of God of no 
effect, in his own mind, by preverting it, according to the 
traditions of men. He observes the form of the truth, but 
not its spirit. He carefully pays “ tithes of mint, and anise, 
and cummin,” but omits “the weightier matters of the law, 
judgment, mercy and truth.” 

SCRIBES AND PHARISEES. 

In Matthew xxiii. 16, 17, blindness is specifically applied 
to the Scribes and Pharisees, who are called “blind guides.” 
But the Scribes and Pharisees were representative of all men, 
in all ages, who are in similiar states of mind and life; and 
who do not admit into their minds the light of spiritual truth ; 
and who, while influencing others, mislead both themselves 
and those whom they teach. And the result is, that “ they 
both fall into the ditch;” or, literally, the “deep place,” or 
“pit.” 


THE PIT. 

As the man who is blind is liable to fall into a pit, so, 
spiritually, the man who is blind to spiritual truth is liable to 
fall into mental pits, false principles of thought and of life. 

In the letter of the Scripture, much is said of persons 
“going down into the pit,” etc.; i. <?., mentally sinking into 
false principles. “ He brought me up, also, out of an horri¬ 
ble pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, 
and established my goings.” The pit is falsity, and the rock 
is the truth. “He hath conceived mischief, and brought 
forth falsehood. He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen 
into the ditch which he made.” Here, it is shown, in terms, 
that the wicked man falls a victim to his own false princi¬ 
ples. 


The Blind Leading the Blmd. 


297 


MISLEADING OTHERS. 

And the parable shows that his influence tends to drag 
down with him, those whom he teaches and influences. And, 
to show the evil of misleading others, we have the prohibi¬ 
tions of the law in the Old Testament: ‘ “Thou shalt not 
curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling-block before the blind.” 
“ Cursed be he who maketh the blind to wander out of the 
way.” “ If a man shall open a pit, or if a man shall dig a 
pit, and not cover it, and an ox or an ass fall therein; the 
owner of the pit shall make good [the ox or ass], and give 
money unto the owner of them ; and the dead beast shall be 
his ;” i. e ., if a man shall teach a falsity, and mislead another 
person, he shall, on recognizing the fa6ls, exert himself to 
undo his bad work, and give the truth, instead; and so far 
as he did wrong, the evil shall be his fault. 

And what a beautiful rule of life this is, for our practical use. 
We do not desire to be “blind leaders of the blind ;” and so, 
when we realize that any selfish pride, or other evil, has in¬ 
duced us to take a wrong stand, in any matter, we should be 
prompt and energetic to undo the bad work that we have 
done, so that our influence may be good, and not evil. 

MISLEADING BY EXAMPLE. 

Those who have the letter of the Word of God, but who 
falsify it in their own lives, are pradlically teaching falsity. 
For a man teaches by his example, more than by precept. 
The Scribes and Pharisees had the letter of the Word, and 
yet, in falsifying it, they were blind leaders of the blind. And 
so is every man who follows their example. The sincere 
teacher must be in earnest, applying truth to men’s adtual 
lives, for their regeneration. 

There are many persons who, in their easy-going mental 
ways, have no vigorous hatred of evil. They imbibe the 
ordinary general sentiments of their day and community, 
against sin, and in favor of goodness; but they have no pro- 


298 


Parables of the New Testament. 


found knowledge of the distinctions between good and evil, 
and no rational discernment of the quality of their own af¬ 
fections and thoughts. They love smooth things ; they feel 
offended at plain characterizations of practical sins. They 
can associate with what they call small evils, without any 
abhorrence; and 'they think it is unkind to call such things 
by hard names. 


THE TEACHER. 

And towards this class of persons, every earnest teacher 
of truth feels a serious duty, if he would avoid being a blind 
leader of the blind. He must try to help them to develop 
a vigorous repugnance towards all evils, no matter how small 
in appearance; for small evils are merely infant scorpions, 
growing and gathering strength, for their infernal work. 

The teacher who has not, himself, learned a horror of 
evils, is not in condition to teach truth to others, without 
danger of misleading them into the ditches of practical falsity, 
under the appearance of truth. A teacher needs not only 
to be instructed in doctrines, held in the memory, but also 
to be in a right state of mind towards the truth; if not, he 
may make wrong applications of right doctrine, and may 
practically mislead others, to their injury. 

ILLUSTRATION. 

For instance; it is true that “the Lord will provide;” 
but it is not to be inferred from this truth, that men shall not 
exert themselves, to provide as of themselves. An unwise 
man may do a charity in an unwise way; and in so doing it, 
he may do injury to others; and he may make himself a 
blind leader of the blind, teaching them practical falsity, under 
the guise of truth. 

Every man becomes a blind leader of the blind, who fails 
to teach men that the way to happiness is to shun every evil, 
as a sin against God, and to learn and obey what the Lord 
teaches, that they may know good from evil. 


The Blind Leading the Blind. 


299 


THE LIGHT OF TRUTH. 

Those who think rationally, know that truths appear in 
their own light; but those who think irrationally, or un¬ 
soundly, do not believe in the truth from any insight, or any, 
perception of the truthfulness of what is taught. 

Interior thought is in the light of heaven, which is the 
spiritual light of truth. But exterior thought is in natural 
light. And the understanding of a man must be elevated' 
into interior light by love and wisdom ; and then he can see 
that a thing is true, though he never before heard it stated. 
A merely sensuous man can no more see heavenly truth, as 
truth, than his physical body could bear the pure heat and 
light of the sun, untempered by atmospheres. 

SPIRIT AND FORM OF TRUTH. 

And it is not enough to be in the knowledge of right doc¬ 
trine ; we need to be in the spirit of it also ; and this depends 
upon the state of our will towards the truth. 

“ No words, whate’er their wisdom, more can tell 
Than what the hearer’s wisdom understands.” 

And so, even in an argument, we must see that we ad¬ 
vocate the spirit of the truth, and not merely the form of it. 
If we take the form of truth, to uphold ourselves in a pradli- 
cal wrong, we falsify the truth; and, to the extent of our in¬ 
fluence, we thus become blind leaders of the blind. And, in 
the context, we read that we must first cast the beam out of 
our own eye, before we can see clearly to pull the mote out 
of our brother’s eye. The real difficulty is not in the lack 
of truth, but in the lack of perception of it. 

THE TRUTH AS LAW. 

Truth is everywhere. Wherever there is anything, there 
is law; for God is everywhere: and God’s methods of prac¬ 
tical operation are natural laws. Over the whole creation, 


300 Parables of the New Testament 

from centre to circumference, law is supreme. And every 
law is a truth. The ignorant savages of the earth stand ap¬ 
palled before the demonstrative phenomena of outward nature, 
which are scientifically understood by civilized men. And 
yet such phenomena are, in the lands of the ignorant, as fully 
governed by law as are similar phenomena among enlightened 
nations. But, by knowledge of law, civilized men have es¬ 
caped the terrors of ignorance. And so, spiritually, the ter¬ 
rors of spiritual ignorance pass away before rational intelli¬ 
gence in spiritual truth. 

The mind that is interiorly instructed in the truths of the 
New-Church, has a vast store-house of rational knowledges, 
which are of practical use, in the building up of spiritual life. 

RESPONSIBILITY. 

Blindness may be a misfortune, rather than a fault. And 
so may ignorance. But, though all men are born ignorant, 
no sane man need remain ignorant of spiritual truth. And 
every man is responsible for the results of his own negleCt. 

THE PROFOUNDER MEANING. 

And this brings us to a profounder sense of the parable, 
its most praClical spiritual meaning. In this sense, the blind 
leader is our blind will, blinded by evil; and the blind one who 
is led is our blind understanding, blinded by falsity. And 
they both fall into the ditch of falsity. 

See the condition of our natural will. It is full of im¬ 
pulses, but it has no light. It cannot see principles; it can 
only feel. It has no insight into the quality of its own im¬ 
pulses. But, in order that we might not be without mental 
sight, our Lord implanted in our minds, an understanding, 
or intellect; and this is the eye of our mind. And so we 
are taught the truth, and thus given to see the character of 
the passions that dwell in our own hearts. 

And on this ability to see the truth depends our capacity 


The Blind Leading the Blind. 301 

to be regenerated. The will and the understanding can co¬ 
operate, in a heavenly marriage of good in the will and truth 
in the understanding, united in the life. 

But if we “ love darkness, [our] deeds being evil,” then 
our blind will leads our blind understanding, and both fall 
headlong into the ditch of false principles. “The light of 
the body is the eye: if, therefore, thine eye be single [literally, 
free from defeat], thy whole body shall be full of light. But 
if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. 
If, therefore, the light that is in thee be darkness, how great 
is that darkness.” 


EXAMPLES. 

A wrong impulse is always a blind leader, and we are 
always unwise to follow it. “Can a devil open the eyes of 
the blind ?” Can an evil passion open our eyes to the Lord’s 
truth? No ; it closes our spiritual eyes. When we fall into 
anger, we let ourselves down into the mere light of the senses, 
which are blind to spiritual things. We may take this as a 
rule of pra6lical life: Whenever we are in a bad passion, we 
are not in condition to trust our judgment as to what is true. 
The passion blinds us; it is a blind leader of a blind under¬ 
standing; and it is sure to lead us to false views and false 
conclusions, even when we think we are right, and think we 
intend to be right, and intend to do right. From the unholy 
fires of anger there arises a dense smoke of sensuous thought, 
which obscures the clear light of spiritual truth. Good in¬ 
fluences, only, can open our minds to the truth. 

Sometimes, in an emergency, our good impulses come 
first; and, afterwards, we go against them. But this is the 
case when we allow an evil desire to overcome a good one. 
Our Lord then first arouses our interior life, before our evil 
passion is aroused. And, if we yield to our bad impulse, 
and reject the good, we refuse to follow our Lord as a leader; 
and we are being led by our blind will. And the result will 
be disastrous. 


302 Parables of the New Testament. 

We cannot trust our own impulses ; for they always need 
the light of the revealed Word, and the leadership of our 
Lord. Often, when we think we are right, we are utterly 
wrong, blinded by a blind leader. “ Thou sayest I am rich, 
and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and 
knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, 
and blind, and naked.” 

OPENING BLIND EYES. 

When, in the prophesies of the Word, we read of the 
time when “the eyes of the blind shall be opened,” how nat¬ 
ural it is to think that the words apply to the heathen; and 
to forget that we are the spiritual heathen to whom they es¬ 
pecially apply. How little we see of the grandeur and glory 
of regenerate life. How little we open our eyes in the light 
of heavenly truth. None are so blind as those who will not 
see. 


THE REMEDY. 

In the verse following the parable, we have the remedy 
presented, by means of which we can come out of spiritual 
blindness, and into the light of heavenly truth. “The dis¬ 
ciple is not above his master; but everyone that is perfect 
shall be as his master.” The Lord is the Master, and the 
man is the pupil. And, as the Lord teaches by truth, so 
truth is the master. And the man must not place himself 
above the truth, or above the Lord. But he who, in love, 
faith and obedience, follows his Master, in the light and life 
of truth, shall be as his Master; i. e ., he shall be in the image 
and likeness of his Divine Master. “Now ye are clean, 
through the Word which I have spoken unto you.” 

Here lies the whole story: the man who sets himself and 
his desires, and his views, above the truth, remains in spirit¬ 
ual blindness, unable to see in the heavenly light; but he 
who sets the truth first, and submits his afife&ions, his thoughts, 


The Blind Leading the Blind. 303 

and his deeds to the test and control of the truth, lives in the 
light of heaven, and walks with his heavenly Master. 

The spiritual coming of the Lord to the minds of men, is 
to open their spiritual eyes, their understandings, to the light 
of spiritual truth. “ Blessed are the pure in heart, for they 
shall see Godthey shall see God in His Divine Truth, in 
His holy Word. And, because their hearts are pure, or free 
from evil, there will not be, in them, a blind will, to mislead 
their understanding. 


SACRIFICES. 

Because of the representative signification of blindness, 
the blind men among the priests, in Israel, were forbidden to 
officiate in the worship. And the Israelites were commanded 
not to offer up to the Lord, in sacrifice, any blind animal. 

OUR INFLUENCE. 

Each of us has some influence, and is responsible for that 
influence. Everyone is called upon to be a good leader, 
and not a blind one. And we are responsible, not only for 
our own work, while we live, but also for the continued in¬ 
fluence of our earthly life, after we have passed beyond this 
world. Every bad state of our life goes on down the ages, 
doing bad work, and making it harder for others to do right. 
Every evil passion sets in motion some current of unhappi¬ 
ness. And who can tell where it will stop ? 

I do not mean that we may comfort our self-love with 
the idea that others are to blame for our outbursts of evil. 
We are prone to say, “You made me do it.” But there is 
another side of the case: we have no right to be in condition 
to be driven to sin, even by the evils of others; much less 
by things that are not evil. Generally, our own over-sensi¬ 
tiveness, which is selfishness, is to blame for our outbursts of 
evil temper. 


304 Parables of the New Testament. 

ILLUSTRATION. 

* 

If I allow matches to lie around on my floors, I cannot 
justly censure you, if you unintentionally tread upon them, 
and set fire to my house. I am responsible, for allowing my 
floors to be in such an inflammable condition. 

When we are stirred up, we can see what evils are in us, 
needing restraint. The tiger is most truly himself, when he 
is in a rage. When he is quietly sleeping, or ina6tive, he is 
not exhibiting his characteristic life. So, if we have evils in 
us, we must judge of our own character by these evils, and 
not by the quiet moments when nothing arouses us. 

We are apt to judge of our own character by our best 
states. But our longings, or aspirations, are not real, until 
fixed in our conduct. As a man, living on a dry, uninviting 
island, amid many hardships and little joy, may occasionally, 
when the wind is in the right direction, catch the fragrance 
of the orange groves, and the melodies of the music, wafted 
to him from the main-land, beyond ; so we, even in our hard, 
cold, selfish life, may at favorable times, when under good 
influences, catch something of the fragrance and the melodies 
of heaven, sent to us in heavenly mercy, to arouse us to ex¬ 
ertion, that we may permanently reach such a lovely life. 
But we must not mistake these occasional visitors for our own 
mental family. Many things are yet needed before we can 
permanently possess these things. 

COURAGE AND LOVE. 

And those who help to lead us to these heavenly things, 
must have spiritual courage enough to hear the Word at the 
Lord’s mouth, and to warn the people, from Him. And, if 
we love the truth, even though we are rebuked, love will 
take away the sting of the rebuke : for we shall see that the 
rebuke is directed to our evil, that our souls may be saved 
from evil. 

But, if we sink into natural-minded states, and fail to value 


The Blind Leading the Blind . 305 

the strength of love which goes out with all well-meant criti¬ 
cism ; if we fall into the terrible falsity that our best friends 
are those who never see any faults in us; we shall be making 
friends of the most subtle and dangerous influences, and re- 
jedfing the heaven-sent aid of our best friends: and then, 
with our self-deluded hearts on fire with infernal passions, 
and our clouded understandings enslaved by our corrupt 
hearts, our hearts will be blind leaders of the blind, carrying 
us down into the pits of direful falsities. 


306 


Parables of the New Testament. 


XXII. 

€1 )c €too SDctrtorg. 

(LUKE VII. 41-43.) 

SPIRITUAL AND NATURAL LOVE. 


SUMMARY. 

A man’s charadier depends upon the quality of his rul¬ 
ing-love. He, whose love is high in quality, rises to a high 
and heavenly condition of practical life; while he whose love 
is low in quality, cannot enter into higher, or greater, adfual 
states of life than his ruling-love fits him to receive. This 
is the principle illustrated in the parable, which can be under¬ 
stood best when read in connexion with its context, verses 
3 . 6“47 • 


NATURAL MEN MISUNDERSTAND. 

The natural-minded man, like Simon, the Pharisee, al¬ 
ways misunderstands, and misjudges, the charadler and the 
purpose of the man who is moved by spiritual affedlion. 
Spiritual men and natural men live in different mental worlds 
of affedlion and thought, worlds essentially different in qual¬ 
ity, or kind. 

The parable was addressed to Simon, as a natural-minded 
man, to show him that there are different kinds, or qualities, 
of love; and that the external life does not always indicate 
the quality of the inward charadler, except to those who can 
look through the outward man, and see the inward man. 
A self-righteous man is very apt to despise men who are in- 



The Two Debtors. 


307 


wardly better than himself, although their outward conduct 
may have been, in the past, disorderly and even sinful. 

We remember another Pharisee, who went up to the 
temple, to pray, and who thanked God that he was right¬ 
eous, and not like the sinful publican, who also knelt in the 
temple. And yet, as the Lord said, “This man [the pub¬ 
lican] went down to his house justified, rather than the 
other.” 

THE CREDITOR AND THE DEBTORS. 

The creditor is the Lord, to whom all are indebted, for 
all that they have. Two debtors are mentioned, one of 
whom owed a large debt, and the other a small debt. But, 
in interpreting spiritual things, we are to regard quality, 
rather than quantity. Everyone owes the Lord all that he 
is and has. But all do not recognize their debt, nor acknowl¬ 
edge it. Those who, in representative language, are said to 
owe the Lord much, are those who see and acknowledge the 
greatness of their debt to the Lord; who know that the 
Lord has done much for them, and that they owe everything 
to Him. And those who are said to owe the Lord but 
little, are those who think they owe Him but little; who, to 
a small extent, see what they owe the Lord. 

The man who owed the creditor five hundred pence re¬ 
presents those for whom the Lord has done much; and the 
man who owed fifty pence, represents those who allow the 
Lord to do but little for them; not that the Lord gives to 
men unequally; but that men are unequal in their reception 
of what the Lord can do for them. “Are not My ways 
equal, saith the Lord? Are not your ways unequal.” 

DIFFERENCE IN MEN. 

In this parable, as in “The Talents,” the different 
amounts lent to men, or put in their charge, represent the 
different states of men, as to their willingness to receive what 


308 Parables of* the New Testament. 

the Lord gives freely to all men. The Lord gives good and 
truth to all men, as freely as He gives physical heat and 
light. And the man who opens his heart to the Lord, in 
love, and allows the Lord to fill him with a heavenly quality 
of love, is the one who owes the Lord much ; for much has 
been done for him, and within him. 

But the man who, in his selfishness, prefers to love him¬ 
self, and who will not open his heart to the Lord, cannot 
have the great work of regeneration done within him. The 
Lord can penetrate but little into the man’s conscious mind 
and life. And, hence, the man has no living experience of 
his great debt to the Lord. 

DIVINE FORGIVENESS. 

The language of the parable is according to natural ap¬ 
pearances : it speaks of the Lord as forgiving one man more 
than the other, because, apparently, the former’s debt was 
larger. But what is forgiveness, as applied to the Lord ? It 
is not merely a release from the penalty of a certain a6l. 
The penalty that is attached to sin was not externally affixed 
to sin, by the Lord, as a legislature attaches a penalty to the 
breach of a civil law. The law that sin breaks is a law of 
man’s own being, inherent in his mental constitution. And 
the penalty is an inseparable result of the breaking of the 
law; just as physical suffering and disease are the necessary 
consequences of the breaking of the laws of physical health, 
which are laws of our own bodily constitution. 

As far as any ill-will, or arbitrary punishment, is con¬ 
cerned, the Lord always forgives every man. “ Have I any 
pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord 
God, and not that he should return from his ways, and 
live?” 

In the true sense, then, in which we are to understand 
forgiveness, that man is forgiven, who sees and acknowledges 
his sins, and ceases to do them ; i. e ., he makes pra&ical use 
of the Divine-forgiveness, which is extended to every man. 


The Two Debtors. 


309 


But the fa< 5 t that the Lord does not intentionally punish 
men, does not remove the actual penalty which is inherent 
in all sin, and inseparable from it, as long as the man con¬ 
tinues in sin. Therefore, the only practical way to use the 
Divine forgiveness, is to cease sinning, and thus to escape 
the penalty. 


PAYING THE DEBTS. 

Thus, in the parable, the man whose debt seemed to be 
the larger, and to whom the creditor forgave more, is the 
man who, by more earnestly ceasing to sin, attains a greater 
degree of regeneration, and more fully sees and appreciates 
the Divine goodness, in saving him from his own evils. 

Neither of these men had anything with which to pay 
the debt; i. e ., they had no goodness of their own, with 
which to off-set their sins. All that they had was a free gift 
from the Lord. So it is, spiritually; the Lord asks no other 
payment of our debt, than its acknowledgment by us, and 
our willing reception of His bounties. For, to receive His 
blessings, men must cease to do evil, and they must live 
according to His commandments. The measure of a man’s 
capacity to receive from the Lord, is the measure of his ac¬ 
knowledgment of w'hat he owes the Lord. He who does 
not acknowledge any indebtedness to the Lord, is not in 
mental condition to receive spiritual blessings. 

man’s natural condition. 

In our natural-minded condition, our affe&ions are self¬ 
ish. We love our family and friends, as parts of ourselves. 
The unregenerate man does not rise above a selfish quality 
of love. Even his most devoted love is merely a form of 
self-love. He loves others for his own sake. We may make 
great personal sacrifices for those whom we love naturally, 
and yet our love may be utterly selfish in its inward motive. 
And, in our natural-minded condition, our affedlions are 


310 Parables of the New Testament. 

narrow and limited; we love those who love us, or who 
gratify our natural desires. 

REGENERATION. 

But, as* we begin to be regenerated, our love undergoes 
a change in character; for our change is a change in the 
quality, or character, of our affections. As we progress in 
regeneration, our love expands, going out more fully to 
others, and regarding the character, or quality, of others ; 
and being interested in them for their own sakes, rather than 
for our sake. Our love gradually includes the whole human 
race. The purer our love becomes, the broader it becomes, 
and the more freely it extends to all men. 

In an unregenerate state, we hate those who seem to 
oppose us. We regard everything from its apparent attitude 
towards our own desires and plans. But, by regeneration, 
we gradually learn to regard others from their stand-point, 
also. And we learn to love them, not merely for what they 
have been to us, but rather for what they are, in themselves, 
in quality and life. 


CHANGE OF VIEWS. 

Naturally, we regard those as good, who are apparently 
good to us ; but, spiritually, we know those to be good, who 
are good to the Lord; i. e., who keep His commandments, 
in a useful life. As we learn to love our Lord we learn, also, 
to love men according to how much of the Lord’s life they 
have in them. And we learn to love the spiritual interests 
of all men, and to seek means and opportunities to help all 
men to be regenerated. We pity the sinner, while we hate 
the sin. 

Thus, self-love is exclusive, but regenerate love is inclu¬ 
sive. The Lord loves all men, even the devils ; and He 
seeks to make all happy; arid He succeeds in doing so, as 
far as they will receive happiness. 


The Two Debtors. 


3“ 


LOVE AND WORK. 

It is the case with all things of our life, that the more we 
love them, the more we are interested in their welfare, and 
the more we will do for them. And more than this : the 
quality of our love for them is measured by the quality of 
what we do for them. We must be careful not to mistake 
quantity for quality. Those whose love may be greater in 
quantity, may be very selfish in quality. 

ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Take, for instance, the states of mind in a lover, towards 
a maiden whom he loves. Possibly he makes great profes¬ 
sions, and in sentimental language, proclaims himself unable 
to live without her. And yet, his love may be utterly selfish. 
Spiritual love is chiefly interested in spiritual life. As to ex¬ 
ternals, it trusts in the Divine Providence, even when its own 
plans are thwarted. No healthy, or spiritual, love ever leads 
to despair, or to suicide. 

And, in married life, the quality of love is seen in its 
modes of expression. The merely natural man lives for this 
world, and is satisfied to have things so ordered that he will 
have a pleasant time, and nothing to annoy or criticise him. 
Self-indulgence may go on, under his eyes, without any re¬ 
buke from him, unless it interferes with his own self-indulg¬ 
ence. 

His selfish love for his children permits him to indulge 
them, as well as himself. But the love of a spiritual man*is 
spiritual in quality; and it looks to spiritual ends. It regards 
all children as the Lord’s children, and it’trains them by His 
laws. And it regards a married partner, not merely as a 
companion in the externals of worldly life, but more espe¬ 
cially as a spiritual being, preparing for the eternal life of the 
spiritual world. 

Externally, the sensuous, selfish, indulgent parent, or 
married-partner, may seem to be much more pleasant and 


312 


Parables of the New Testament . 


comfortable. But, in the depths of his nature, his self-love 
is his ruling’ power. He does not love anything, spiritually; 
and, hence, he cannot love anything unselfishly. And, on 
the other side, the spiritual man, loving with a spiritual love, 
looks at life from a spiritual stand-point, and works for spirit¬ 
ual ends. And, very naturally, in the eyes of children, and 
of natural-minded adults, he may seem to be somewhat se¬ 
vere and unsympathetic, because the plane of his work is 
above their comprehension. He is working for their spirit¬ 
ual life; and, to do this, he must work against their evils. 
And they cannot appreciate the quality of his love, until 
they, themselves, come under the influence of spiritual affec¬ 
tions. 


LOVE TO THE LORD. 

And in regard to the Lord, at first, a man loves God for 
what God has done for him. He loves God for a selfish rea¬ 
son, and for his own (the man’s) sake. But, as regeneration 
progresses within him, he learns to distinguish the quality of 
the Lord’s love, and to see that God is love. And then the 
man learns to love the Lord for the Lord’s own sake; and 
for what the Lord is, in character. 

And as we follow the Lord, in the regeneration, keeping 
His commandments, we become more and more like Him, 
in the quality of our love. We change our mental states; 
we outlive our old and selfish states, and live ourselves into 
new conditions. And the better we become, the more the 
Lord can do for us, and in us. As we learn, by personal 
experience, how much the Lord does for us, in lifting us 
above evil, we grow more and more opposed to evils of all 
kinds, especially our own evils. 

Thus, in the true sense of the parable, the more we love, 
the more we are forgiven; i. e., the more we come into a 
condition of mind and of life, in which the Lord can save us 
from evils, and thus give us the pra&ical results of His con¬ 
stant forgiveness. Men who have little love, have little 


The Two Debtors. 


3*3 

capacity to use the Lord’s forgiveness; they have little open¬ 
ness to heavenly life. 

SPIRITUAL STRENGTH. 

Spiritually, a man’s strength of character is in the quality 
and quantity of his love. A powerful love of good neces¬ 
sarily includes a correspondingly powerful hatred of evil, 
especially the evil that is in ourselves. As we come into 
conjunction with the Lord, in spirit, the Divine influences 
come down, and withhold us from evils, even in our external 
life. This they do, by our co-operation, in keeping the com¬ 
mandments. For, as we love the Lord, it becomes our 
spiritual meat and drink to do His will. 

SPIRITUAL AND NATURAL. 

Thus, in one sense, we may say that the man, in the 
parable, who was the greater debtor, and who was forgiven 
more, represents the spiritual man, who attains a high degree 
of regeneration; while the one who owed less, and was for¬ 
given less, represents the natural-minded man, who, though 
seeking literally to obey the commandments, has not yet 
attained a spiritual-minded state. 

The quality of the love is different, in the two men. 
And the quality of a man’s love to the Lord is the quality 
of the love which he has been willing to receive from the 
Lord. For every man receives love of such quality as he is 
willing to work for, by putting away his evils. And the 
quality of his hatred of evil, measures the quality of his love 
of good. 

The Lord enters into the man’s heart, with the love of 
good, and the hatred of evil; and the man makes this love 
his own, when, under its influence, he ceases to do evil, and 
does good, in the name of the Lord. Thus, the quality of 
a man’s love to the Lord is tested by the quality of the 
love which he, himself, exercises towards other men. John, 


314 Parables of the New Testament. 

the apostle, was called “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” 
because John was one who, by loving Jesus, opened his 
heart, and allowed the Lord’s love to enter into him, and to 
bless him. 

When a man loves much, in quality, as well as in quan¬ 
tity, he rises into a higher spiritual character, because he 
repudiates the sins of his past life; and he hates the evils 
which took form in those sins. As he lives himself out of 
evil, and into good, the sins of his past life do not adhere to 
him. They are no longer a part of him, because he no longer 
cherishes the evils which produced such sins. “ Love is the 
fulfilling of the law,” because love keeps the law, and thus 
comes under the protection of the law. 

LOVE AND FORGIVENESS. 

The law is fulfilled, or filled full of life, to him who lives 
by it. Thus, because of the woman’s fulness of love to the 
Lord, the Lord said, “Her sins, which are many, are for¬ 
given, for she loved much.” For, by the strength of her 
love, and according to its quality, she entered into a new life. 
In her present state of heart, she would not again commit 
such sins. Sins are the outward expression and embodiment 
of evil affedlions and false thoughts. Thus, our sins remain 
with us, as long as our charaCler remains the same. But, 
when our chara&er changes, we outgrow the things that be¬ 
longed to our former character; as, in returning to health, 
after illness, we outgrow the sick conditions. 

“The soul that sinneth, it shall die;” not as a punish¬ 
ment, but as a result of sin. “But, if the wicked will turn 
from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all My 
statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely 
live; he shall not die.” For the Lord’s effort is not to pun¬ 
ish men, but to save them. “ For God sent not His Son into 
the world to condemn the world, but that the world, through 
Him, might be saved.” 

The Father is the Divine Love, and the Son is the Divine 


The Tivo Debtors. 


315 


Truth, which the Father, or the Divine Love, has sent to 
men, to teach them the way back into the blessings of the 
Divine Love. And the Father and the Son are one God, in 
one person. Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.” “He 
that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father.” 

THE EVIDENCE OF OUR LOVE. 

And, as to the evidence that we love the Lord, the Lord, 
Himself, declares, “He that hath My commandments, and 
keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me.” Our love to the 
Lord is not, then, to be measured by our gushing sentiment¬ 
ality at prayer-meetings, nor by our demonstrative external 
piety. The measuring-rod of heaven penetrates more pro¬ 
foundly than these superficial things. The evidence of our 
love to God is to be found in the measure in which we shun 
evils, because they are sins against God, and do good, in our 
practical daily life. If we love the Lord, we shall, for His 
sake, restrain our tendencies to evil. 

And so, in regard to our fellow-men. He has the great¬ 
est love for his friends, who for their sake, restrains his own 
tendencies to evil, and seeks to influence his friends to restrain 
their evil tendencies. 

SPIRITUAL SYMPATHY. 

Who, then, is full of genuine sympathy? Not the man 
who makes the greatest display of external pitifulness over 
your outward troubles, but the man who, rising high above 
external effedls, throws his strength into sympathy for your 
soul, and seeks to help you to put aw’ay your evils, which 
result in sorrows; who does not merely cry over the fall of 
man, but goes resolutely to work, to lift him up. 

He whose tears are always on the surface, ready to flow 
at a moment’s notice, often has his bad temper equally ready 
to break out upon you. But that man has genuine sympathy, 
who, for the sake of your regeneration, is willing to do the 


316 Parables of the New Testament. 

unpleasant work of rebuking your evils; who, in the strength 
of a spiritual love, is willing to break up the sensuous pleas¬ 
antness of indulgence, and to have, instead, natural struggle 
and sorrow, in order that you may have a higher quality of 
life, in the world to come; who is willing to incur even your 
dislike, if, thereby, you may be led to see your evils, and to 
put them away. 

This is love; this is sympathy, broad and high enough 
to look over the few years and low conditions of this exter¬ 
nal life, and to fix its attention upon the real and eternal 
world, beyond. This is loving sympathy, towards whose pro¬ 
found depths and heights, the paltry, pitiful, sensuous sym¬ 
pathy, which forgets the Divine Providence, and encourages 
self-love, is as dross to pure gold, tried in the fire. 

FALSE APPEARANCES. 

How often it is the case, that the very things that trouble 
us, and which are the real causes of our sorrow, are the very 
things that we are unwilling to give up; while the things 
that seem to be the origin of our troubles, are the Lord’s 
providential means of our regeneration. The Lord’s love 
looks to our spiritual good; to the upbuilding of a regene¬ 
rate charadler within us. 

HEAVENLY METHODS. 

And when a heavenly quality of love fills the heart of a 
man, he will work as the Lord works, for spiritual ends, and 
by rational means. And he will do this, in his association 
with his friends, and with all his fellow-men, as well as with 
himself. He dare not do otherwise, acknowledging all good 
to be from the Lord, and the Lord’s way to be the only right 
way. He knows that the Lord has done much for him, and 
he longs to induce all others, (particularly those who are 
bound to him by especially tender ties,) to open their hearts 
more fully to the Lord, that He may do more for them, to 


The Two Debtors. 


3i7 


their eternal happiness. On all planes, and in all degrees 
of life, he feels a vigorous love, and a tender sympathy for 
all. And he exhibits his affe< 5 Hons in such ways as will be 
most conducive to the spiritual good of all. 

But, as with the Lord, so with men, their spiritual affec¬ 
tion is not appreciated, except by spiritual men. Natural- 
minded men, like the man with one talent, in the parable of 
“The Talents/’ regard the Lord as “a hard man.” 

Our work, then, is to cultivate spirituality of character, 
that we may love the Lord, and, in the contented usefulness 
of a good life, learn to appreciate His infinite love. “Whoso 
are wise, and will observe these things, even they shall under¬ 
stand the loving-kindness of the Lord.” 


3*8 


Parables of the New Testament . 


XXIII. 

€lje <sSoo& Samaritan. 

(luke x. 30-37.) 

LOVE OF THE NEIGHBOR. 


THE PRINCIPLE. 

The love of the neighbor consists in being well-disposed 
towards all men. As we are taught that there are two great 
commandments, love to the Lord, and love to the neighbor, 
it is important to understand who the neighbor is, and what 
constitutes charity, or love to the neighbor. And the para¬ 
ble illustrates this subject, by practical example. 


THE LITERAL STORY. 

“ A certain lawyer stood up, and tempted [or tested] Him, 
saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He 
[Jesus] said unto him, What is written in the law? How 
readest thou?” [For these lawyers of the Scriptures were 
ecclesiastical lawyers, or teachers of the Mosaic law.] “ And 
he, answering, said, Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with 
all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, 
and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself. And 
He said unto him, Thou hast answered right; this do, and 
thou shalt live. But he, willing to justify himself, said unto 
Jesus, And who is my neighbor?” Then Jesus answered 
him, by giving the parable. 



The Good Samaritan. 


3*9 


THE LAWYER’S QUESTION. 

This lawyer’s question has considerable force, when we 
remember the condition of Jerusalem, in that day. The city 
was under the dominion of the Roman conquerors. And 
its streets were filled with a motley group, gathered from all 
quarters of the globe. And it was a serious question, to this 
Jewish lawyer, as to who had a right to claim from him the 
duties of a neighbor. His own friends, his own class, and, 
possibly, by a great stretch of thought, his own nation, might 
claim from him neighborly love and condu<5t. 

But, he could scarcely imagine that he could be expelled 
to feel, or to a<51, as a neighbor to the whole horde of uncir¬ 
cumcised infidels, barbarians, and national enemies whose 
presence profaned the streets of the holy city. And, more 
than all, there was a class to whom he felt a peculiarly strong 
aversion, the hated Samaritans, who were an abomination to 
the Jews. Surely, he thought, no one could ask him to feel 
anything but hatred to an accursed Samaritan. 

THE SAMARITANS. 

For the Samaritans were aliens, who had been placed in 
the land, after the Israelitish inhabitants had been carried 
away, as captives. “The king of Assyria brought men from 
Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Ham¬ 
ath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of 
Samaria, instead of the children of Israel: and they posessed 
Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.” And these hated 
aliens even established a temple on Mount Gerizim, as a 
rival to the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. 

LIMITING THE LAW. 

No wonder that this lawyer, or dodlor of the ecclesiastical 
law, (probably a Levite,) was willing to justify himself, in his 
hatred of accursed aliens and enemies, and so desired to limit 


320 


Parables of the New Testament. 


the idea of neighbor to his own people, and, if possible, to his 
own class. When he asked the first question, “ What shall 
I do to inherit eternal life?” the Lord referred him back to 
the Divine law, of which he was a teacher. But he then de¬ 
sired to limit the operation of the law. But the Lord, in the 
parable, expanded the application of the law, to cover 
the whole human race, and even showed the heavenly quali¬ 
ties of the despised Samaritan. 

JERUSALEM TO JERICHO. 

“ A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho,” a 
journey of about eighteen miles, through the worst, and most 
rugged, and most dangerous, road in Palestine; so danger¬ 
ous, so infested by robbers, that a part of it was called “The 
Bloody Way.” Many priests and Levites lived at Jericho, 
and went back and forth to Jerusalem, to take their turns in 
ministering in the temple-service. 

The poor man, in the parable, fell among thieves, or rob¬ 
bers, who stripped him of his clothing, beat him, wounded 
him, and left him half dead. 

THE PRIEST AND THE LEVITE. 

In the common translation, it is said “by chance” a priest 
came along. But, properly, it is “by a coincidence.” In 
fa<5t, there is not, in the New Testament, any word meaning 
chance, luck, fate, or arbitrary fortune. 

As the man was lying in his blood, a priest came along 
the road. And it would seem, that now, the poor sufferer 
would find help, from one of his own priests, probably going 
up to officiate in the temple, or just returning from the tem¬ 
ple. But, when the priest saw the poor man, “he passed by 
on the other side” of the road, and left the suffering brother 
to his fate. “And likewise a Levite, [one of the priestly 
class,] when he was at the place, came and looked on him, 
and passed by on the other side.” Both have gone by with- 


The Good Samaritan . 


321 


out a word of pity, or an a 6i of love. An ordinary dog 
would have stopped, to lick the wounds of the sufferer, as 
the dogs licked the sores of poor Lazarus. But, here, the 
professional teachers of the Divine Law express no sympathy, 
and make no attempt to apply the mercy which they teach. 

THE SAMARITAN. 

The last hope of the dying man seems to have fled; for, 
if his own holy priest would not help him, where can he turn, 
for aid? But, a despised Samaritan comes along the road. 
From him, of course, the bleeding Jew can expert nothing but 
abuse; for, as the woman of Samaria said to Jesus, at the 
well of Sychar, “the Jews have no dealings with the Samari¬ 
tans.” The Samaritan knew, of course, how this wounded 
Jew regarded the Samaritans, and that he could not expe<5t 
any mercy from the Jew, if their positions were reversed. 

But the Samaritan loved the Lord; and this love made 
him feel that, in their hour of need, all men were his neighbors. 
And so “he had compassion; and went to him, and bound 
up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine;” thus using, for the 
haughty Jew’s medicine, what the Samaritan had carried for 
his own food, on his journey. And then he took the wounded 
man, and set him on his own beast, (the Samaritan’s mule, 
or ass,) and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 
And, even then, he did not feel his duty to be at an end ; but, 
“on the morrow, when he departed, he took two pence [i. e. } 
two days’ wages for a laborer,] and gave them to the host, 
[or landlord,] and said unto him, Take care of him, and 
whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will 
repay thee.” 

Now, what this Samaritan did for the wounded Jew, was 
no light matter. He gave the Jew his food, his money, and 
his care. He put the Jew upon his beast, and walked, him¬ 
self, while he held the half-dead Jew in his place. And, by 
the delay, on this dangerous road, he increased the risk of 
being, himself, overtaken and killed by robbers. 


322 Parables of the New Testame7it. 

JESUS’ QUESTION. 

After the parable, Jesus asked the lawyer, “Which, now, 
of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell 
among the thieves? And he said, He that showed mercy on 
him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.” 
The whole matter is thus placed in practical form. Our 
neighbor is the man who needs the love and the help that 
we can give him. 

Notice the difference between the lawyer’s question, and 
the Lord’s answer. The lawyer asked, “ Who is my neigh¬ 
bor?” i. e ., Who is entitled to claim my neighborly love 
and service? But the Lord’s answer was rather a reply to 
the question, “To whom am I to be a neighbor?” And the 
parable showed that neighborly love depends upon our own 
states of affeblion towards others; and that we should always 
be in such condition of love towards all men, that their needs 
will call forth our love, and our wise and efficient aid. 

OUR NEIGHBOR. 

In the light of the New-Church, we see that charity, or 
love to the neighbor, is in the inward man, in our will; and 
that it consists in being well-disposed, in heart, towards all 
men. There is a broad sense in which every man is our 
neighbor, for every man is a child of God, and capable of 
being led back to the Lord. Every man has needs, and 
these needs must appeal to our judicious sympathy. Every 
man has the capacity to become an angel. And we are to 
love that capacity, in every man; and to help him to de¬ 
velop that capacity, and to form a heavenly chara&er. 

Abstraddy, the principle of good is the neighbor whom 
we are to love. And every man is truly a neighbor to others, 
according to the quality and quantity of the good that is in 
him, from the Lord; i. e ., according to his ruling-love. And 
the nearness of our fellow-men to our hearts, depends upon the 
nearness of our hearts to the Lord. We will pour out to 


The Good Samaritan . 


323 


others the same qualities which we allow the Lord to pour 
into us. 

True neighborly love does not require us to hold any 
person above good principles. Neighborly love seeks to 
do good, and to restrain evil, in ourselves, and in others. 
We cannot do any man a greater injury, than to induce him 
to do evil, blinding him to a clear distinction between good 
and evil. Love of the neighbor is not called upon to do, 
for men, all that they, in their wrong states, desire us to 
do. Professional paupers, who “trade upon their sores, and 
even make sores, to trade upon,” are best helped by disci¬ 
pline, not by indulgence. We must do what we know to be 
good for others. Neighborly love looks to the good that is 
in men, or that is to be cultivated in them. 

DEGREES OF NEIGHBOR. 

And there are several degrees of neighbor: First, the 
Lord, who is Good, itself. Second, the Lord’s kingdom, in 
heaven and on earth. Third, the Church, in the aggregate. 
Fourth, one’s country. Fifth, one’s general society. Sixth, 
an individual. Good is to be done to these, in this order; 
for, what is truly for the good of the greater number, is for 
the good of individuals. We love good men, and have more 
dependence upon them, than upon w r eak characters. Neigh¬ 
borly love requires us to love the good which a man should 
do; and to love him because he does it. Or, if he does not 
do it, then we are to love his capacity to do good; and we 
are to help him to develop his capacity, and to allow the 
Lord to form him into a heaven. 

For heaven is an inward condition. “The kingdom of 
God is within you.” And, whatever a man is, we are still to 
do right towards him; to do as we would be done unto ; and 
not to despise him. Genuine neighborly love is like the 
Lord’s love; and He “is good to all.” “He maketh His 
sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on 
the just and on the unjust.” To love those, only, who treat 


324 Parables of the New Testament . 

us well, is the do<5trine of the hells, not of the heavens. And 
we can not keep this truth too plainly before our thought. 
Love of the neighbor is a principle of life, and not merely a 
sentiment. It is a love of doing good to others; of giving 
what the Lord gives to us. 

ILLUSTRATIONS. 

There are many persons, who, in outward sentimentality, 
keep their eyes piously raised to the clouds, while they fail 
to see their suffering fellow-men who lie about their path¬ 
way. We can truly love our neighbor only as we love our 
Lord. Jesus said, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one 
of the least of these, My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.” 
The old tradition, corrupting the Scriptures, said, “Thou 
shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy;” but the Lord 
said, “I say unto you, Love your enemies.” Thus the name 
of neighbor covers the whole human race. A good neighbor 
is one who, from love, and without compulsion, is ready 
wisely to do any needed good. 

There are evil men, who, in a thousand ways, fall upon a 
man, and take away his goods, physically and mentally. 
These are robbers, swindlers, sneaks, who prey upon the 
community. And our sympathy ought to go out to their 
innocent vidlims, and also to themselves, but in a very dif¬ 
ferent method of expression. We are to avoid two extremes, 
a contempt of others, on the one hand, and a mistaken sym¬ 
pathy, which confuses evil and good, on the other hand. 

THE INWARD MEANING. 

If we are to help men out of their physical troubles, cer¬ 
tainly we are to be even more efficient in helping them out 
of spiritual troubles. In its literal sense, the parable displays 
the outward a<5ts of charity; and in its inward sense, it por¬ 
trays the spiritual principle of charity. A natural love is a 
love of the person, but a spiritual love is a love of the good 


The Good Samaritan . 


325 


that is in the person, or that may be in him. Charity does 
not do as little as possible, but as mu-ch as possible, accord¬ 
ing to its ability. 


JERUSALEM AND JERICHO. 

Jerusalem, where the temple was placed, for national 
worship, and for instruction, represents the Church, as to 
worship, and as to doctrine. A man is spiritually in Jerusa¬ 
lem, when he is in the knowledge of truth and doctrine, from 
which he seeks to worship the Lord. 

Jericho was near the boundary of Canaan; and thus it 
represents the externals of the Church, and of life, the bound¬ 
ary of the Church, or that which introduces to the Church. 
Thus, Jericho represents good and truth, and instruction, in 
their external and practical phases. Jericho was called “ the 
city of palms.” And palm-trees represent our good, grow¬ 
ing, fruit-bearing affections. And so, for a man to go down 
from Jerusalem to Jericho, represents a going out from spir¬ 
itual instruction, into the practical things of life, in which 
good is to be found by practice. 

THIEVES. 

And the road from Jerusalem to Jericho; i. e., from prin¬ 
ciple to practice, is beset with many dangers. There are 
many robbers on the way. Spiritual thieves are all who take 
away a man’s spiritual riches, and injure his spiritual life; all 
whose influence upon us is bad, including not only intention¬ 
ally evil persons, but also our injudicious friends, whose care¬ 
less influence encourages our evils and our self-indulgence, 
and tends to confuse our clear distinctions between good and 
evil. 

Evil spirits, too, are thieves, whose influence takes away 
our spiritual riches and life. They stir up our natural pas¬ 
sions, and develop our unneighborly feelings, thoughts and 
conduct towards others. They steal away our raiment, the 


326 


Parables of the New Testament. 


truths that clothe our affections. They beat us with false 
suggestions. They injure and wound our hearts with false 
reasonings. They leave us half-dead, by almost taking away 
our spiritual life. They injure our states of worship of the 
Lord. 

Thus, even if we have been in Jerusalem, and have been 
instructed in the truths of the Church, and have had some 
feelings of worship of the Lord, we are in danger of losing 
these spiritual riches, as we travel the dangerous road of 
practical, daily life, towards the application of our instruction 
to the conduCt of life. 

PRIESTS AND LEVITES. 

And, when we suffer from the assaults of evil influences, 
the priests and Levites, the evils and falses of a perverted 
Church, or of a perverted state of mind, cannot help us. For 
the priest, in a good sense, represented the love of the Lord, 
and the Levite represented the love of the neighbor. But, 
in a bad sense, as in the text, the priest is the love of self, 
and the Levite is the love of the world, in the corrupted 
Church, or in the corrupt natural state of mind. These “ pass 
by, on the other sidethey are opposed to all true charity; 
they do not care for the neighbor. 

Perhaps the priest and the Levite thought they had no 
time to spare, to help the wounded man; or that it was not 
their business. But, if we are in the love of performing uses, 
we shall love to do good, even to disagreeable persons. We 
love the use, irrespective of the person. If their evils annoy 
us, we shall forget that trifling matter, in our earnest love,, 
and in our desire to rescue them from bad spiritual com¬ 
pany, and to heal their wounds. 

THE SAMARITAN. 

The Samaritan found time to help the sufferer. And 
every man will find time to do, spiritually, what he loves to 


The Good Samaritan. 


3 2 7 


do. No man is put in any position where he cannot do right, 
spiritually. He cannot always control his circumstances, 
but he can always control his own principles, in any circum¬ 
stances. Those who are filled with love of the neighbor are 
desirous to save others from the infestations of spiritual rob¬ 
bers. They pour in the oil of heavenly love, and the wine 
of spiritual truth. They bind up the man’s wounds with 
practical good advice. They set the disabled sufferer on 
their own beasts; i. <?., they set his mind upon the rational 
understanding of truth, on which they have ridden. They 
take him to the inn, the school of the Church, where spiritual 
food and drink are given to him; where he is instructed in 
good and truth; where he will be safer from evil influences, 
and in the care of the Lord and His angels. 

The Samaritan, as a Gentile, represents the natural, sim¬ 
ple love of good and truth, natural charity. The Samaritan 
did his good works, while he was journeying, or progressing 
in life; and when he came where the other man was; i. e ., 
when he came into a state to see the needs of others. 

And, “ on the morrow i. e. } in a new state, brought 
about by the circumstances, he paid two pence, for the con¬ 
tinued support of the sufferer, and also agreed to pay as 
much more as should be needed, when he should come that 
way, again; i. <?., he gave all that he could, of love and of 
wisdom, to save the sufferer from evils and falses; and he 
was disposed to do more, as his ability increased, and as the 
other man’s need demanded. 

Thus, when a man finds himself infested by evil spirits, he 
cannot turn, for help, to the corrupt priest and Levite, the 
old evils and falses of corrupt life. But his safety will come 
through his Gentile state of simple love of good. 

In the light of this beautiful parable, how significant it is 
that, on one occasion in the temple, the Jews, being angry 
at the plain teachings of Jesus, cried out to Him, “Say we 
not well, that Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?” 
Truly, the good Samaritan of the parable showed the spirit of 
Jesus. Remember, too, that when, at one time, Jesus met 


328 


Parables of the New Testament. 


ten lepers, and cleansed them, only one of them turned back 
to glorify God; and he was a Samaritan. 

ILLUSTRATION. 

Take an illustration of spiritual robbery. Here is a man 
who has been in Jerusalem, spiritually; i. e ., who has been 
instructed in true doctrine, and has formed a habit of wor¬ 
shipping the Lord. But some friend gradually induces him 
to believe in a “Vicarious Atonement,” and he losesJiis be¬ 
lief in a good life from religious principles, as being salvation 
from sin. Or, perhaps, scientific infidelity takes hold of him, 
and leads him to reject all things that he 'cannot see proven 
to his external senses; and to rely upon sensuous appear¬ 
ances, rather than on spiritual openness to truth, and per¬ 
ception of principles. 

Now, spiritual robbers have stripped him of spiritual 
truths, beaten and wounded him with falsities, and left him 
half-dead, alive to external things only, and dead to all the 
higher, grander, holier things, that are open to the rational 
intelligence of the spiritual mind. Instead of seeing the 
grand verities of spiritual life, the poor wounded man is 
held down by sensuous things; and he imagines that all hu¬ 
man affections and thoughts are but the temporary effects of 
changes in the relative positions and conditions of the 
molecules of the brain. Such men mistake the effect for 
the cause. Poor, blind leaders of the blind, both fall into the 
ditch of sensuous falsities. They see nothing beyond the de¬ 
gree and plane of natural effects, and their mental eyes are 
closed to the whole grand world of spiritual causes. 

THE LOVE OF SAVING. 

But, even though such men be sorely wounded in spirit, 
and half-dead, yet those who love the Lord and the neigh¬ 
bor will feel a strong desire to save them from their danger¬ 
ous condition, and to nurse them back to vigorous spiritual 


The Good Samaritan . 


329 


life. Even if others, being in bad spiritual company, exer¬ 
cise their evils upon us, we can ascribe the evil to the evil 
spirits in whose company they are; and we can try to lead 
them out of such company. 

Forgetting all petty personal aspe&s of the case, we can 
rise to a nobler principle of neighborly love and usefulness. 
Reading the parable, we can hear the Lord’s command, “ Go, 
and do thou likewise,” even to those who despise and perse¬ 
cute us. The way to heaven lies through love, mercy and 
usefulness. 


SALVATION. 

The whole spirit of this parable shows there is no “ Vicar¬ 
ious Atonement.” Salvation is not by “Faith, alone,” but 
by love, faith, and obedience. Jesus referred the lawyer to 
the law, itself, as the means of eternal life. And Jesus said, 
“ Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets ; 
I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” And to fulfil does 
not mean that Jesus obeyed the law, to allow men to avoid 
keeping it, but that Jesus fulfilled the law, or filled the law 
full of life, to those who obey it. And so Jesus showed that 
men, themselves, must obey the law, in their daily life. “ If 
thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments,” for these 
are the means of life. 

WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR? 

When the question arises, in a man’s mind, “ Who is my 
neighbor?” it will be answered, within him, according to the 
state of his own heart. If he loves the Lord, and his fellow- 
men, the human race will be his neighbor. But, if he loves 
himself supremely, his idea of neighborly love will be nar¬ 
rowed down to the limits of his own heart. 

Wherever the spirit of the hells crops out in sell-exalta¬ 
tion, and contempt of others ; wherever there is the infernal 
spirit of caste, and of prejudice against color or condition; 


330 Parables of the New Testament. 

wherever there lurks the diabolical contempt against those 
who humbly labor for their living; wherever there is a narrow 
selfishness, that regards everything from its own stand-point, 
alone; there the hypocritical priest and Levite refuse to help 
their needy fellow-men; and there is need of the love and 
the w r ork of the good Samaritan. And happy is he, who, 
hanging up before his conscience the mirror of this searching 
parable, does not see his own face in the priest and the Levite. 
Happy is he, who not only in sentiment, but also in heart 
and in conduct, responds to the love that warmed the heart of 
the good Samaritan, and from his loving heart, flowed forth 
to all who stood in need of its service. 

ILLUSTRATION. 

Take an illustration. A few years ago, on a memorable 
night, a well-filled steamer plied the waters of Long Island 
Sound. Suddenly, in the dead of night, the sleeping pas¬ 
sengers were aroused by the startling cry of “ fire !” Rapidly 
the passing wind fanned the devouring flames, and forced the 
human freight to seek immediate safety from the fire, in the 
only less remorseless waves. 

Amid the frightful scene, a strong-hearted and strong- 
armed man swam here and there, gathering the drowning 
passengers upon floating timbers. The wild fire was rapidly 
devouring the doomed vessel, and the wild winds shrieking 
a dismal dirge; the dense shadows and the lurid glare alter¬ 
nating upon the frightful scene. Few could hope to escape 
the common fate. 

The rescuing hero turned towards a sinking man to save 
him; when, from a gayly-dressed woman, clinging to a float¬ 
ing bench near by, came a voice of agony, and of piteous 
appeal, shrieking,“ Oh ! save me! save me / Don’t take him; 
he's only a nigger .” And a great wave seized her, and car¬ 
ried her down, to death and to judgment. Her last words 
breathed the very spirit of the hells. And yet she was a 


The Good Samaritan. 


33 r 


woman, one of “the gentler sex,” to whom we look for ten¬ 
der love and gentle sympathy. 

And, perhaps, she was a member in good standing, in 
some Christian Church; a Church named after Him who is 
no respecter of persons; who was born into the world in a 
poor and humble family; whose meek and lowly life was 
spent in ministering to all men, even the most lowly and 
despised; and who, in the parable before us, ascribes infernal 
vices to men of the ruling classes, and heavenly virtue to the 
despised Gentile. 


THE NEW-CHURCH. 

Well, indeed, is it, for human nature, that a. New Church 
has arisen, to redeem Christianity from its perversions; to 
teach new truths; and to lead us all to a new quality of love 
and of life. Even to-day, we sadly need the loving rebuke 
of this beautiful parable. “Have we not all one Father? 
Hath not one God created us? Why do we deal treacher¬ 
ously, every man against his brother?” “All things whatso¬ 
ever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to 
them; for this is the law and the prophets.” 


332 


Parables of the New Testament* 


XXIV. 

€f)c importunate £©itmigf)t fnettij. 

(luke xi. 5-8.) 

EFFORT NECESSARY TO RECEIVE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 


THE PRINCIPLE. 

Heaven flows into the open human mind. And, there¬ 
fore, we need to keep our hearts and understandings 
always open to the Lord, that He may fill us with good 
and truth. And, for this purpose, constant, persistent 
and sincere efforts are necessary. 


METHOD OF INTERPRETATION. 

The text well illustrates the fa6f that a parable is to be 
interpreted spiritually, and by correspondences, and not 
merely by natural comparisons. It would be blasphemous 
to say that the Lord, like the friend in the parable, could 
be indifferent to the needs of men, or unwilling to take 
the trouble to serve men ; or that we could, by persistent 
asking, finally weary Him into doing for us, what His 
own love would not have impelled Him to do. The Lord- 
has not periods of inadlivity. “He that keepeth Israel 
shall neither slumber nor sleep.” 

There cannot be a literal parallel between the action 
of the sleeping friend, in the parable, and the Lord. The 
conduct of the friend was unneighborly and unfriendly. 
But the Lord never omits an opportunity to do good to 



The Importunate Midnight Friend. 


333 


men. He is, like the sun, with its heat and light, always 
seeking to give to everyone; and every man receives all 
the spiritual life that he will open himself to receive. 

And the Lord plainly teaches men that they will not 
be heard in heaven, on account of the quantity of their 
praying, but according to its quality. ‘ ‘ When ye pray, 
use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do ; for they think 
that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not 
ye, therefore, like unto them, for your Father knoweth 
what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him. After 
this manner, therefore, pray ye.” Then follows “The 
Lord’s Prayer,” the model prayer. The Lord loves to 
give to all men ; and the unwillingness is on the part of 
men. “Ye will not come unto Me, that ye might have 
life.” “And him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise 
cast out.” 


APPEARANCES OF INDIFFERENCE. 

From the literal sense of the Bible, not intelligently 
understood, and pra&ically misunderstood by minds hold¬ 
ing false do6frines, there is received an idea that the Lord 
does not always help men as soon as He might. And 
there were times when Jesus, Himself, seemed to be some¬ 
what indifferent to requests, and not prompt in granting 
prayers for help. Take, for instance, the case of the 
Greek woman, mentioned in Matthew xv. 21-28, and in 
Mark vii. 25-29, who besought Jesus to cast out a devil 
from her daughter. At first, * ‘ He answered her not a 
word.” And, afterwards, He answered her indire< 5 lly. 
But, finally, He healed her daughter. 

CAUSE OF DELAY. 

But the apparent delay of Jesus was for the purpose of 
helping the woman to strengthen her faith, and come into 
condition to receive the help which He was about to give 


334 


Parables of the New Testament. 


her. Thus, the Lord’s seeming delay induces the man 
to urge himself forward to more receptive conditions. 
Many men, like Peter, think they are ready to receive 
heavenly life long before they are truly ready. And the 
Lord, in His infinite wisdom and mercy, guards us against 
prematurely coming into contact with conditions that we 
will not maintain. 

The trouble with men is not that they can not get 
good and truth in abundance, but that they will not; i. e ., 
they will not give up their evils, which obstru6l the coming 
of good and truth into their minds and lives. And it is 
also true that we value anything according to how long, 
and how earnestly, we have desired it, and worked for it. 
And thus, by apparent delay, the Lord increases our 
spiritual strength of character, and renders heavenly things 
more precious to us. 


NEED OF PERSISTENCY. 


J 


While, therefore, the text does not afford a literal 
parallel between the unwilling friend and our ever-willing 
Lord, yet it teaches us that, if even selfish men are won 
over by earnest and persistent asking, we need npt doubt 
the Lord’s willingness to give us any spiritual good that 
we earnestly and persistently desire and seek. But the 
earnestness and persistency are not needed in order to in¬ 
fluence the Lord, but in order to develop our own char- 
a6ter. 


THE INWARD MEANING: THE FRIENDS. 

In the parable, both of the friends mentioned repre¬ 
sent the Lord, but in different aspects. The first-named 
friend, to whom the man goes for bread,, represents the 
Lord as to good, i. e ., as to His Divine Love; and the 
second friend, who had just come from his journey, repre¬ 
sents the Lord as to His Truth, His Divine Wisdom. 


The Importunate Midnight Friend. 335 

Truth is the mental way, or path, by which we travel to 
goodness, 


JOURNEYING. 

A man on a journey represents one who is progressing 
in the truth, who is using the truth, to attain an object in 
life. And the truth, itself, is always on a journey, in the 
minds of men ; it is making gradual progress through the 
man’s memory, and through his understanding, into his 
heart. So, in Nathan’s parable to David, it was a “way¬ 
faring man,” i. <?., a man on a journey, who came to the 
house, needing food. Thus the truth came to the man’s 
mind, seeking to unite with his good affedfions. And, as 
the Lord is the Truth, so the journey of the truth is the 
journey of the Lord, in approaching a man’s mind, and 
in entering into his mind to abide there. 

MIDNIGHT. 

The traveller arrived at midnight. This was not an 
unusual occurrence in Eastern countries; for, on account 
of the great heat of the day, journeys were often made at 
night. Mentally, midnight is a state of ignorance, mental 
darkness, before the mind attains a knowledge of truth. 
All men are born ignorant, both naturally and spiritually, 
and all need to acquire knowledge. But all men have 
rationality, or the inherent capacity to understand truth, 
which capacity needs to be opened and developed. The 
Lord comes to us in His holy truth, when His truth be¬ 
gins to make an impression upon the midnight darkness 
of our minds. 

As midnight is the end of one day, and the beginning 
of another, so it represents a state of mental darkness, 
or ignorance, just before the beginning of a new state of 
mind, a new state of instruction in truth, from the Lord. 
The Psalmist sings, “At midnight I will rise to give 


336 Parables of the New Testament 

thanks unto Thee, because of Thy righteous judgments.” 
And, while this might have been, literally, a devotional 
habit with David, it represents the spiritual condition in 
which the mind arises to higher states, when the Lord’s 
truth comes upon us, in our midnight darkness, and dis¬ 
plays to us the righteousness of the Lord. 

And we remember that, in the parable of ‘ ‘ The Vir¬ 
gins,” it was at midnight that the cry was made, “Behold, 
the Bridegroom cometh ! Go ye out to meet him.” And 
when the Lord, as a “friend,” comes to us, in His truth, 
in our midnight darkness, and we begin to have some 
love for this truth, and some earnest desire to receive it, 
and to secure the pradlical good to which it points, then, 
spiritually, we arouse ourselves, and prepare to receive 
such truth, and to treat it with hospitality. 


NOTHING TO SET BEFORE HIM. 

But, on refledlion, we see that there is no good in us, 
in which the truth can feel at home, and which can serve 
as a base, or support, for this truth; i. e ., we find that 
our friend has come to us, at midnight, but we have no¬ 
thing in our mental house to set before him. In the light 
of the new truth, we find ourselves destitute of any good, 
any profound love for truth, or any pradlical life of obe¬ 
dience to truth. 

And, in this extremity, what can we do? We think 
of another ‘ ‘ friend, ’ ’ who can help us, in our emergency ; 
we think of the Lord’s goodness ; and we look to Him, 
to help us to acquire goodness. We see that His truth 
demands attention and support; and then we turn to His 
love, to aid us in entertaining His truth. We go to Him, 
with the acknowledgment that we have received His truth 
into our mental house, but that we have no good of our 
own, with which His truth can be united. 


The Importunate Midnight Friend. 


337 


BREAD. 

And so we go to Him for “ bread,” the practical good 
of life, which shall feed and sustain the new truth that has 
come to us, and which can give us spiritual nourishment. 
We ask for “three loaves,” for pra&ical goodness, in its 
fulness, in all degrees, in the will, in the understanding, 
and in the conduct. For three, as a number, represents 
fulness, or completeness, especially as to truth. 

Here, in connexion with bread, it refers to the good 
of truth, the goodness which is to support the truth. 
And this we acknowledge that we have not, of ourselves, 
and in our own mental house; and so we go to our Lord, 
to borrow it from Him. And we receive from the Lord 
such good as we are in a state to appreciate. 

To a great extent, we must take good upon authority, 
obeying the law because the Lord so commands. This 
is borrowed bread. But, afterwards, we make goodness 
our own, in a< 5 tual life, and from love of goodness, in 
conjunction with the Lord. 

But the Lord cannot give us goodness merely for the 
asking. Truth can be taught and communicated, for the 
asking, but not goodness. We must, as of ourselves, 
make goodness by using the truth. Of course, the Lord 
gives us the goodness; but He can give it to us by our 
co-operation, only. 


DELAY. 

And, when we first approach the Lord, and seek 
goodness, He seems to be indifferent to our requests. 
He seems to say to us, “Trouble Me not.” Of course, 
this is merely an appearance, for the Lord is never in¬ 
different, or unwilling, towards any man, even the most 
evil. He is always doing all He can do, to give good to 
men, and to mitigate the self-inflicted sufferings of the 
devils in the hells. But, when men do not understand 


338 Parables of the New Testament. 

the way in which the Lord helps them, they imagine that 
He does not intend to help them. 

FROM WITHIN. 

It is said of the friend in the house, “And he, from 
within , shall answer,” etc. Thus, the apparent indiffer¬ 
ence of the Lord arises from the man’s own inward 
thought, when he sees his own unworthiness, and sup¬ 
poses that God will not condescend to look favorably upon 
a sinner. 

We notice this ignorant state of thought, in men who 
say they will not join the Church until they are good 
enough ; failing to see that men ought to join the Church 
because they are not good enough, and because the Church 
is a means of helping them to become better. No man 
on the earth is perfectly good. 

THE DOOR. 

When a man thinks of the difference between his 
character and the Lord’s chara< 5 ter, he often imagines that 
the Lord has shut the door between them, and will not 
condescend to re-open it. The door, or doorway, is a 
means of communicating between two places. 

In our minds, there are two doors, the natural door, 
communicating with natural life in the world, and the spirit¬ 
ual door, opening towards heaven and the spiritual life. 
Naturally, the natural door of the mind is open to the 
outer world; and the spiritual door is shut, until man is 
willing to have it opened; i. e., until he is willing, by 
repentance and reformation, to come into a mental state 
in which the Lord can open the door to the man’s spirit¬ 
ual consciousness. 

But the man often imagines that the Lord is not will¬ 
ing to open the spiritual door. But the Lord has made 
His Divine Humanity the “Door,” through which men 


The Importunate Midnight Friend. 339 

may enter into spirituality of life. Jesus said, ‘‘I am the 
Door; by Me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and 
shall go in and out, and find pasture.” When the door 
(between a man’s mind and heavenly goodness) is shut, 
the man, himself, is the one who keeps it shut. And yet, 
in his ignorance of spiritual life, he imagines that the 
Lord shuts the door. 


THE BED, ETC. 

The man in the parable also said, ‘ ‘ My children are 
with me, in bed.” Children, as derived from their par¬ 
ents, represent new principles of life, as outbirths of older 
states, or as new states, succeeding the older ones. The 
bed, on which we rest, represents the do&rine, on which 
the mind rests. For instance, in Isaiah xxviii. 20, we 
read, “The bed is shorter than that a man can stretch 
himself on it;” i. e., the false doCtrine is too short, men¬ 
tally ; it will not allow the mind to expand, and to exercise 
itself in freedom ; it cramps the affections, and restrains 
the thoughts. The children are in the bed ; i. e ., the new 
principles are to be found in the true doClrine of the 
Church, from the Lord’s Word. 

The Scriptures are not given as formulated doClrine, 
but as the reservoir, whence doCtrine is intelligently and 
rationally to be drawn; as nature is not exa6t science, 
but is the reservoir from which science is intelligently and 
rationally to be drawn. But, as nature cannot be under¬ 
stood without exaCf science, so the Lord’s Word cannot 
be understood without true doCIrine. True dodlrine is 
spiritual science, which is needed, in order to understand 
spiritual things. And so the man who approaches the 
Lord, without proper knowledge of dodfrine, does not 
understand how the Lord can help him to acquire good¬ 
ness, as “the bread of life.” He is often discouraged, 
because he does not clearly understand the dodlrine. 


34° 


Parables of the New Testament . 


ARISING. 

And so the Lord seems to say to him, “I cannot rise, 
and give thee.” But the fa6t is, that the man does not 
‘ ‘ rise ’ * to the clear understanding of the doCtrine; i. e ., 
he does not elevate his mind above the region of the natu¬ 
ral senses and their plane of thought. God cannot ‘ ‘ rise, ’ * 
in the man’s mind, until the man is willing to exert him¬ 
self to rise to higher and more spiritual views of the Lord, 
and of humanity. God rises, as we lift Him up, in our 
thoughts and affections. 

Thus the Lord first ‘ ‘ rises, ’ ’ and then ‘ ‘ gives ” to us ; 
i. e ., as we lift up the Lord, in our minds, such an eleva¬ 
tion gives us new states of life. “ Let God arise ; let His 
enemies be scattered’ i. e ., when we exalt the Lord, in 
our hearts, our evils and falsities will be scattered from 
His presence. 


IMPORTUNITY. 

“I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give 
him, because he is his friend, yet, because of his impor¬ 
tunity he will rise, and give him as many as he needeth.” 
As already remarked, the conduCt here mentioned cannot 
furnish a literal parallel to the Lord’s ways. For “The 
Lord is good to all, and His tender-mercies are over all 
His works.” “He maketh His sun to shine on the evil 
and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just, and on the 
unjust.” But the Lord, though he offers all good to all 
men, cannot actually communicate good to any man, ex-, 
cept in the degree in which the man is open to receive good. 

The Lord cannot, from His love to men, and as their 
Divine Friend, give them whatever they outwardly ask 
for ; but He can give them that only, which they inwardly 
desire, and live for. And their own persistent effort and 
earnestness will open them to the reception of the Lord’s 
gifts. _ - - , - - 


The Importunate Midnight Friend. 


34i 


Prayer and earnest effort will not change the Lord, 
nor make Him any more ready to give ; but they will 
change the men, themselves, and make them more capa¬ 
ble of receiving. ‘ ‘ Blessed are they that do hunger and 
thirst after righteousnsss, for they shall be filled.” But 
nothing can fill with good and truth the man who has no 
hunger for goodness, nor thirst for truth. 

And so the Lord, working in man, first produces in 
the man a desire for spiritual life; and then this desire 
makes the man conscious of a longing for goodness. And 
as the man earnestly seeks goodness, he opens himself to 
receive it, from the Lord. The mere importunity of the 
man, in asking, does not, of itself, result in an answer to 
his prayer; for it is the Lord who inspires the man with 
earnest desire. But, as the man, in his own consciousness 
and as of himself, lives for goodness, the Lord can answer 
his prayer for goodness. 

ACCORDING TO NEED. 

And then the Lord can give the man “as many as he 
needs’ i. e ., all the good that he is open to receive ; 
all that he will use. As the man resists and shuns his 
evil inclinations, he makes room in his mind and life for 
goodness. “ He that overcometh shall inherit all things.” 
“Thou openest Thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of 
every living thing. . . . He will fulfil [i. e ., fill full,] the 
desire of them that fear Him.” When a new truth comes 
to us, as a friend, we can call upon the Lord, as a Friend, 
to supply us with a corresponding quality of goodness, 
which shall be the food of the new truth. 

Though the Lord is always seeking to communicate 
good and truth to us, yet He can do so, pradlically, only 
when we maintain continued effort of our will to procure 
blessings, and to shun evils. For the measure in which 
we receive good from the Lord, is the measure in which 
we, as of ourselves, pra&ically shun evils. Therefore, in 


342 


Parables of the New Testament. 


order to attain spirituality of life, a man must be thor¬ 
oughly interested in such life, and persistently earnest in 
seeking it; knowing that, thus, he can surely receive all 
the goodness that he will live himself into. 

All we have to do, then, is to shun evils, and do good; 
and, without fainting, without failing, without fretting, 
without discouragement, without doubting, learn the truth 
which points out the good, and bravely go on, pra< 5 tising 
the truth until we secure the good. Jesus left us both 
His precepts and His example. 

WAITING. 

The natural man tires, in waiting (as he supposes) for 
the Lord’s plans to mature. But his own impatience as 
to results is one cause of the delay. The fa< 5 t is, that the 
Lord is always waiting for the man to come into a state 
to receive spiritual life. With every man, as with Israel 
on the journey to Canaan, there is a short way to the 
promised land; and the man may take it, if he will. But 
men’s own evils drive them to wander towards Canaan in 
a long and round-about way. The short way is the way 
of obedience to the Lord’s commandments. 

EARNESTNESS. 

Men need more spiritual earnestness, and more per¬ 
sistent effort. These, with right motives, always succeed. 
“He that endureth to the end, shall be saved;’’ not only 
the natural end, or conclusion, but also the spiritual end, 
the purpose of the ruling-love. For the sake of preserv¬ 
ing our spirituality, we must bravely endure all the strug¬ 
gles against our evils. The only permanent earnestness 
is that which embodies a good purpose in rational a<5Uon. 

One great secret of life is contentment. If we cannot 
have what we think we want, then we should be satisfied 
to want what we can have. We cannot have just what we 


The Importunate Midnight Friend. 


343 


want, lor the mere asking; but we can have what we 
earnestly ask for, by living for it. And, when we do not 
receive just what we ask for, the Lord will give us what 
we really need, and are able to receive, profitably to our 
souls. Often, the Divine Wisdom must withhold that for 
which we unwisely ask. 


PRAYER. 

Our prayer does not need to be constant in external 
foim. There are uses to perform, that will not allow us 
to be always engaged externally in prayer. There is true 
prayer in every performance of our uses. Every effort 
we make to shun evil, and to do good, is a living prayer 
for the Lord’s help. And it is the kind of prayer which 
can be most readily answered; for the answer is in the 
strength and support that we receive, to uphold us in our 
efforts. Thus “ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye 
shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” 


344 


Parables of the New Testament . 


XXV. 

cfjc antcij fool. 

(LUKE XXI. l6-2I.) 

WORLDLINESS. 


THE PRINCIPLE. 

Worldliness closes the mind to spiritual life. The man 
whose affection and thought are absorbed in sensuous life, 
though he may acquire a competence in worldly riches, yet 
remains poor as to spiritual riches, and unable to receive, or 
to enjoy, the blessings of heaven. 

THE QUESTIONER. 

The worldly state of the man who sought the Lord’s aid, 
is to be inferred from the manner in which he intruded 
himself upon the Lord’s attention. Jesus was engaged in 
teaching the grand truths of spiritual life. And there were, 
at the time, gathered together a great multitude. And this 
man, without being desirous to receive the grand truths of 
interior life, rudely broke in upon the Lord’s teaching, and 
pushed his petty external affairs into immediate prominence. 
He shrewdly sought to make use of the Lord’s authority, to 
accomplish his own natural purposes. 

THE REPLY. 

But the Lord met the spirit of the man, rather than the 
subjedl-matter of his application : He did not enter into the 



The Rich Fool . 


345 


merits of the case, but He called attention to the inward prin¬ 
ciple which is apt to underlie all such cases. 

The Lord came upon the earth, to bring a new dispensa¬ 
tion of light and life; and so He did not make Himself to be 
a judge, or divider, over the civil affairs of men. For these, 
they had laws and courts. But the Lord came to teach men 
ne\V spiritual laws of life, which should inwardly fill the 
minds of men, and influence them to keep all laws of proper 
authority. Therefore, the Lord rebuked the man who 
sought to use Him for selfish purposes. 

COVETOUSNESS. 

In rebuking covetousness, Jesus declared, “A man’s life 
consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he pos- 
sesseth.” And the word “life” is used, here, in the sense 
of our existence, and not merely our outward living, or sus¬ 
tenance. The parable shows that covetousness leads a man 
into a mental condition in which he is not prepared for the life 
beyond the grave ; for, by centering his affe6fion and thought 
upon sensuous things, he closes himself to spiritual things. 

In the parable, the rich man does not acquire his riches 
wrongfully, but justly, by the growth of fruits and grain in 
his own fields. The point of the parable is not, then, against 
the riches, themselves, nor the manner in which they were 
acquired, but against the condition of their owner’s mind, 
towards his riches. The rebuke is not against the posses¬ 
sion of riches, but against the worldly love of riches. “ II 
riches increase, set not thy heart upon them.” 

PREPARATION FOR SPIRITUAL LIFE. 

The purpose of life is to perform uses, and to be devel¬ 
oped for the spiritual world, and not to spend all our time 
and means in the pursuit of earthly pleasures. And the par¬ 
able includes a warning to those who wish to retire from the 
performance of uses, to live in mere sensuous life. 


34-6 


Parables of the New Testament. 


The use of the Church is to teach men the laws of the 
Lord, and to show them how to use this life in preparing for 
the real and permanent life, hereafter; and to lead them in 
doing good, and in shunning evil. 

CHURCH AND STATE. 

The Lord did not express indifference to the rights of the 
man who applied to Him for redress in civil matters; but 
He meant to teach men the great principles on which justice 
is founded; and to leave to the civil authorities the adminis¬ 
tration of justice in civil affairs. And so, in other cases, the 
Lord taught men always to obey the civil laws; to “render 
unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,” and, at the same 
time, to render “unto God the things that are God’snot 
that all things are not God’s, but that the civil authorities 
are God’s agents in civil matters. 

The Church and the State exercise authority on different 
planes of life. The civil law, in its ena6fment, interpretation 
and execution, is in the hands of the civil authorities, as the 
servants of the Lord for the administration of civil affairs. 
But spiritual laws are revealed by the Lord, and are ex¬ 
plained and applied by the Church. 

And when men are regenerated, the civil authorities do 
their work in an orderly way, being influenced by the prin¬ 
ciples which are taught in the Church, and which are the 
fundamental principles of all spiritual and natural life, 
brought down and ultimated on the natural plane, in the 
civil laws of external life. Thus the Church instru6fs the 
civil officers, and prepares them to perform their uses wisely 
and faithfully. Thus, in the body of the community, as in 
the physical body of a man, each part has its place and its 
use; and thus the general health is preserved. 

NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL RICHES. 

The lesson of the parable is true, both literally and 


The Rich Fool. 


347 

spiritually; i. e ., as to both natural and spiritual riches. 
If natural riches are not used for a good purpose, they 
become, to the man who abuses them, curses rather than 
blessings. In regard to all riches, the point to consider 
is, what influence have they in the formation of our char¬ 
acter? If they are separated from spiritual principles of 
life, they cannot be of any real profit to us, however great 
their abundance. In fa6t, the greater their abundance, 
the more they excite our sensuous desires, and to the 
exclusion of interest in spiritual things. ‘ ‘ And what shall 
it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose 
his own soul?” 

For all merely natural riches cease to be the man’s 
property, when his spirit is separated from his natural 
body ; for nothing goes with a man to the spiritual world, 
but his character. And this is true with the spiritual 
riches, knowledges of good and truth : if they have been 
received, and used, in self-love, and not for reformation 
and regeneration, we shall not retain them, in the spirit¬ 
ual world. 

And, in the verses of the context, following the para¬ 
ble, we are taught, in the beautiful comparison to the 
lilies of the fields, that our Lord cares for us all, and pro¬ 
vides for all our necessities, both natural and spiritual. 

TROUBLED BY RICHES. 

The rich man, in the parable, was troubled by the 
abundance of his riches : he did not know what to do with 
them. He thought he had no room where he could store 
them away. But, had he no good barns in the needs of 
his fellow-men? Were there no deserving poor, no un¬ 
fortunate ones, whose needy homes would have been most 
excellent barns for his surplus wealth ? 

To the natural thought of the rich man, a plan sug¬ 
gested itself, in the increase of his own barns. And 
when he should have built larger barns, and stored away 


348 Parables of the New Testament. 

all his wealth of fruits, he would have no further care, for 
many years. He would eat, drink, and be merry. He 
would have a fully-satisfied sensuous life. But what would 
he do for his spiritual life? Was there no need of prepar¬ 
ation for the world to come? 

HIS SOUL REQUIRED. 

But, while the man is thus comforting himself with 
glowing prospers of self-indulgence, a messenger knocks 
at his door. It is a messenger from the unseen world. 
And he says to the trembling rich man, Come with me : 
your natural life must now close, and you must pass into 
the spiritual world. And what shall the poor rich man 
do? What can he do? He may objedl; he may lament; 
he may rage; but he must obey. There is no resistance 
to such a call. He must go ; and he must go now. 

Only his soul is required to go ; his natural body may 
remain in the natural world. And all the things that he 
has laid up for his natural, bodily life, may stay here, too, 
with his natural body. His soul has no further need of 
these physical things ; and his poor physical body can no 
longer use them. They must fall to others. But his soul 
must go. But in what condition does it go? What pre¬ 
paration has it made, for the life to which it must go? 

The man felt himself to be well provided for, in this 
world ; but he has not laid up any treasure in the next 
world; and he now feels no confidence in himself, for the 
spiritual world, and no desire to enter into it. His afle6Hons 
and thoughts are absorbed in the flesh, and anything be¬ 
yond the flesh seems, to him, shadowy and unreal. “So 
is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich 
towards God.” 

THE SPIRITUAL MEANING: RICHES. 

Spiritually, riches are knowledges of good and truth, 


The Rich Fool . 


349 


doctrines and fa£ts known, and stored up in our memory. 
And a rich man, spiritually, is one who possesses an 
abundance of knowledges of good and truth, one whose 
memory is well supplied with true do&rines and fa< 5 Is, 
which he may use, if he will, in procuring the good which 
he theoretically knows. The ground of the rich man is 
his mind, in which the knowledges of good and truth are 
held. And the quality of the good which these knowl¬ 
edges can bring forth, is the same as the quality of the 
man’s love. If the man’s affe6tions are centred in sens¬ 
uous life, his knowledges, however numerous, can make 
his mental ground bring forth a large crop of natural 
good things, only; things good for natural life, only. 
The ruling-love is the emperor of a man’s mental empire, 
keeping all things in the empire under his control. 

THINKING WITHIN HIMSELF. 

The man “ thought within himself;” i. e. y he reflected; 
he exercised his interior thought. In fa6l, a man’s inter¬ 
ior thought is his real speech : it is the speech in which 
the man holds converse with himself, and lays bare, to 
himself, his own purposes and plans. 

Saying, spiritually, means thinking; for outward say¬ 
ing is only expressing our thought. The man said to 
himself, or thought, “This will I do;” i. e ., his thought 
is aroused, from his will; they are co-operating for the 
same end. “What shall I do?” is the thought of the 
understanding; but “This will I do,” is the perception 
of the will, as to how it shall accomplish its ends. So, 
in the parable of “ The Unjust Steward,” the steward asks 
himself, “What shall I do?” and replies, from his will, 
‘ ‘ I am resolved what to do. ’ * 

HAVING NO ROOM. 

The man in the text says, ‘ ‘ What shall I do, because 


350 


Parables of the New Testament. 


I have no room,” etc. He felt natural things to be good 
and delightful. But, in the increase of his delights, he 
thought his mind had no room for all the natural good he 
desired; i. <?., his understanding was too contracted to 
comprehend the apparent good things that he felt to be 
good. Thus, as a man’s will feels new delights, he de¬ 
sires to expand his understanding, that he may understand 
how to make the most of his new good things. When a 
new feeling arises, he desires to be able to plan for it, that 
he may enjoy it. 

New states of feeling give him new states of thought; 
and so he changes his thoughts, to agree with his changed 
feelings. He tears down his old barns, and builds larger 
ones; i. e ., he extends the sphere of his understanding 
and memory, to agree with the new states of his will. 
And, in these extended conditions of his understanding, 
he can store up, and plan for, and enjoy, all the new 
feelings that have come to his will. 

Thus, as a man’s ruling-love sends forth a new crop 
of affections, he enlarges the grasp, and the capacity, of 
his understanding, in the same direction. For, if a man’s 
heart and his understanding disagree, the man will be 
divided against himself; and if they fail to co-operate, 
one lagging behind the other, he will not be in free¬ 
dom. 


ENOUGH LAID UP. 

And when the man, coming into new states of feeling, 
correspondingly expands his understanding, until he thinks 
he knows all about these things, and how to enjoy them, 
he is satisfied with his condition. He thinks he has enough 
good, and enough knowledge, to enable him to enjoy him¬ 
self in his own way. And, in his spiritual ignorance, he 
imagines that his knowledges of good are already con¬ 
verted into the good things, themselves. 


The Rich Fool. 


35i 


EATING, DRINKING, ETC. 

And he says to his soul, “eat, drink, and be merry.’* 
Eating is nourishing the spirit with what is supposed to 
be good. And drinking is nourishing the spirit, the mind, 
with truth. And to be merry is to enjoy the delights 
which are produced by good and truth. But, if the man’s 
knowledge is only abstract truth, not brought out into a 
genuinely good life, his supposed good is not genuine 
good. 


THE FOOL : THE NIGHT. 

And, when the judgment comes, the Divine Truth will 
say to him, “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be re¬ 
quired of thee: then whose shall these things be which 
thou hast provided?” A “fool” is one who stores up 
knowledges in his memory, but does not use them for his 
regeneration, by shunning evils as sins, and performing 
uses. 

“This night,” is this state of inward darkness, or 
falsity, when the truth, though known as do&rine, is not 
used as the light of life. ‘ ‘ Thy soul shall be required of 
thee;” i. e. f a judgment comes, when a man will be sep¬ 
arated from this natural world ; and all knowledges which 
he did not put to practical use, will be taken away from 
him. For, pra&ically, he will rejeft all such knowledges, 
when he enters the other life. They have not formed any 
part of his real life, and so he will have no real interest 
in them. His soul will be “required” of him, because 
he will not willingly leave the natural world of sensuous 
things, in which he feels at home. 


NOT RICH TOWARDS GOD. 

“So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, but is 
not rich towards God.” Any man who regards himself, 


352 


Parables of the New Testament. 

and his own interests, in everything, is rich towards him¬ 
self, only. Riches are not only money, but also all that 
money will procure, ease, comfort, sumptuous living, con¬ 
sideration among men, power, influence, fame, etc. ; and 
also intelle< 5 tual riches. He lays up treasures for himself, 
who seeks and acquires knowledges of good and truth, 
for selfish purposes, worldly ends. For such a rich man, 
“ it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, 
than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.’’ 

THE ELEMENTS OF EVIL. 

In this worldly love of either natural or spiritual riches, 
there are two elements of trouble : first, an undue love of 
the world; and second, a distrust of the Lord’s Provi¬ 
dence. There are men who have so thoroughly enfleshed 
their souls, that we wonder how they can ever feel at 
home in any other than a natural and sensuous world. 
“Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength, but 
trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened 
himself in his substance.” “ The prosperity of fools shall 
destroy them. ” “ O Lord, deliver my soul from . . . men 

of the world, who have their portion in this life.” 

DANGER OF MISTAKE. 

And, in this matter, a man may fall into a mistake 
which, like a hidden trap, lies before the unwary. He 
may say, ‘ ‘ I am working for money ; but I am not work¬ 
ing for myself, but for my children : I want them to be 
independent. ’ ’ But, there is great danger that he is work- 
for his children in this world, only ; for, if he concentrates 
his aflfedfion, thought and effort upon making his children 
independent, pecuniarily, he is very liable to have no zeal 
for their spiritual interests and training. Whatever he 
esteems as the greatest good, he will work for; and, con- 


The Rich Fool. 


353 


versely, whatever he is most zealously working for, he 
secretly esteems as the greatest good. Thus, a man often 
leaves his children rich for themselves, in this world, but 
poor towards God, and for the spiritual world. 

USEFUL WEALTH. 

It is right to acquire wealth, honestly, and with the 
desire to use it for spiritual and natural uses. ‘ ‘ Lay not 
up, for yourselves, treasures upon earth, where moth and 
rust do corrupt, and where thieves break through and 
steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where 
neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do 
not break through, nor steal. For where your treasure 
is, there will your heart be, also;’ ’ i. e ., treasures of self- 
love, laid up in the natural mind, the earthly part of our 
mind and life, feed our evils, falsities and sins; but the 
riches of regenerate life, laid up in the heavenly part of 
our mind and life, our spirit, are permanent, and beyond 
the destructive influence of evils and falsities. 

RICH TOWARDS GOD. 

To be rich towards God, is to make our riches of 
knowledge lead us to God; and to use our mental riches 
for reformation and regeneration. For all heavenly ends 
and purposes are in agreement with the Lord’s purposes. 
Heavenly riches are riches of character, in love, wisdom 
and holiness. And he who has the riches of character 
has, also, the riches of the Lord’s blessings, for the Di¬ 
vine blessings come to us inwardly, in the way of char¬ 
acter, and not merely outwardly, in the way of external 
gifts and surroundings. And no man is in mental con¬ 
dition to use the Divine blessings, except as his character 
comes into agreement with the spiritual quality of those 
blessings. He is in heaven, who has the principles of 


354 


Parables of the New Testament . 1 


heaven in him, in his chara< 5 ter. 1 ‘On those who love 
such things as belong to Divine and heavenly wisdom, 
light shines from heaven, and they receive illumination.’' 
(H. H. 265.) 

To gain spiritual life, a man must lose his selfish life, 
and learn to depend not upon sensuous things, but upon 
spiritual things, as the indwelling life of all natural things. 
He must “Seek, first, the kingdom of God, and His 
righteousness,” knowing that, then, “all these [external 
things] shall be added unto” him, according to his need. 


LOVE OF USE. 

Every man has spiritual life, according to his love of 
use. And the spiritual love of use is formed, in him, by 
shunning evils as sins, and by doing good, in the name of 
the Lord. Thus, the man performs uses, i. e ., does good, 
from spiritual principles. By shunning evils, his mind is 
opened to the Lord, and the Lord enters in, and disposes 
the man to do good, to perform uses, which are spiritual 
uses, when done from spiritual ends. 

Thus, while the natural-minded man imagines that all 
life is in the sensuous enjoyment of external things, the 
spiritual-minded man knows, by experience, that genuine 
human life begins, when he rises beyond a sensuous state 
of mind, and opens his soul to the inflowing stream of 
the Divine life, which implants heaven in his mind, and 
fills him with an interior happiness, “the peace of God, 
which passeth all understanding” of the merely natural 
man. 


GENUINE NATURAL GOOD. 

The good things of natural life are good, in their 
proper places, and as servants to the spirit. Like fire, 
they are “good servants, but bad masters.” But we are 


The Rich Fool. 


355 


foolish, when we fret and worry about them, as if they 
were our very life. Very few externals are a< 5 tually ne¬ 
cessary to the regenerate man. 

But, in using this world for the sake of the spirit, we 
make the best of both worlds ; and then the earth be¬ 
comes the Lord’s foot-stool, on which we stand, as we 
reach upwards, towards His throne. “A little that a 
righteous man hath, is better than the riches of many 
wicked.” “ Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for 
that meat which endureth unto everlasting life.” 


356 


Parables of the New Testament 


XXVI. 

Uniting, toitl) Jloins 45irticti anti Higl)tjS 
hunting. 

(luke xxi. 35-48.) 

A STATE OF PREPARATION. 


THE POINT. 

The force of the parable lies in its warning to men, urging 
them to maintain a state of preparation to receive what the 
Lord seeks to give; and to avoid falling into evil, false and 
sinful conditions, which put them into unreceptive states. 

GIRDING THE LOINS. 

In Oriental countries, men wore long, loose garments, 
hanging down to their feet. But, when at work, or on a 
journey, they tightened their girdle, or belt, and drew up 
the long skirt, letting it hang loosely at the waist, so as to 
leave the feet and knees in a freer condition. This was “ gird¬ 
ing the loins.” We notice this habit, in the eating of the 
passover, as mentioned in Exodus xii. 11 : “Thus shall ye 
eat it; your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your 
staff in your hand;” i. e. } as if prepared for a journey, or for 
work. The point is, literally, to be in readiness for what is 
to be done. 

But, spiritually, the loins represent the affe< 5 Hons. And 
girding the loins and lifting up the clothing, represent lifting 
up the truth, from its lower, or natural, aspedls, and regard- 



Waiting , with Loins Girded and Lights Bunting. 357 

ing it from inward affe&ion, and for the good that is in it. 
Thus, to gird the loins signifies to be in a state of love of 
good. 

4 

LAMPS BURNING. 

And to have our “lights [literally lamps] burning,” 
is to be in a state of faith in the truth, and in mental illum¬ 
ination, or intelligence. Lamps, as hollow vessels, represent 
doCtrines, which serve to enlighten the mind, when filled with 
the oil of love. (These things were considered in the para¬ 
ble of “The Ten Virgins.”) Having the lamps burning, is 
having them in use, and ready for use; i. e ., having the truth, 
in doctrines, well known and in daily use, and ready for any 
case that may arise. 

When truths in the understanding are joined with love in 
the will, or heart, they shine brightly, and maintain our intel¬ 
ligence. Thus our minds are kept under the fnfluence of 
heavenly principles of life. Heavenly love, as a sacred fire, 
is kept perpetually burning upon our mental altar. And, in 
the practical walk of daily life, we acknowledge to our Lord, 
“Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my 
path.” 

THE LORD OF THE HOUSE, AND THE SERVANTS. 

The men who wait, are the servants of the household. 
Spiritually, the man of the house, or lord of the place, is the 
ruling-love. And the servants are the truths, which serve 
the ruling-love. Our affections use the truths that we know, 
to serve their purposes. But, in a supreme sense, the man 
of the house is the Lord, because He is the real Ruler in 
every regenerate man’s mind, and the regenerate man’s 
ruling-love is a love which flows into him from the Lord. 
Thus, men, or servants, waiting for their Lord, are the truths 
which dwell in a regenerate man’s mind, ready to serve the 
Lord. 


358 


Parables of the New Testament. 


The wedding is the union of Divine Good, or Love, 
with Divine Truth, or Wisdom. This union always exists 
in the Lord; and it begins to be formed in a man, when he 
begins to be regenerated; and it progresses in the degree 
in which his regeneration progresses. When the Lord re¬ 
turns from the wedding, is when the Lord comes to a man 
who is entering this wedded state of spirit, in which his love 
and his wisdom are united, in his devotion to the Lord. 

The Lord’s coming is the approach of the Divine Love 
to a man’s will. And His knocking is the announcement of 
His Divine Truth to a man’s understanding. And both to¬ 
gether constitute the Lord’s constant presence with a man. 
“ Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear 
My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will 
sup with him, and he with Me.” 

OPENING THE DOOR. 

To open unto the Lord, immediately, is to turn the will, 
or heart, to Him. To open the door, practically, is to re¬ 
move the obstructions, which stand in the way, and which 
exclude the Lord. And these obstructions are our own evils 
and falses, and our sins of life. When these are repented of, 
and removed, we open unto Him immediately, when He 
comes in His good and in His truth. He finds ready en¬ 
trance ; and thus He blesses the man with spiritual life. 

WAITING FOR THE LORD. 

It is the man’s work to keep the door open to the Lord. 
All those are waiting for the Lord, who are doing His will, 
in a daily life of uses; for the Lord can always come in to 
such a state of mind : it is always prepared for Him. Wait¬ 
ing for the Lord is not, then, merely a mental state of ex¬ 
pectation of some outward phenomena, or of some sudden 
mental change; but it is a state of obeying the Lord’s com¬ 
mandments, and performing uses. It is not waiting for 


Waiting , with Loins Girded arid Lights Burning. 359 

something to do, but it is doing what we have to do, and 
thus keeping ourselves prepared to receive greater life. The 
light of truth and the warmth of love, flow into the aCtive, 
working mind. Thus, the best way to wait for greater life, 
is actively to use what we already have. 

WATCHING. 

I 

Pra&ically, to watch is to watch the formation of our char¬ 
acter ; it is to restrain our tendencies to evil, and to do good, 
and thus to keep ourselves in a state to know of the approach 
of our Lord ; for the Lord comes to us in every truth that 
is made known to us, and in every good that is suggested. 
And then the Lord can find ready entrance into our minds, 
and can bless us with more and higher spiritual life. 

While we are serving Him, He serves us; while we are 
open to Him, He flows into us, with all that we are ready to 
receive. “Verily, I say unto you, that He shall gird Him¬ 
self, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth 
and serve them.” And the servants, or truths, in our minds, 
are blessed, when they are united with good, or love. 

The Lord finds us watching, when we are spiritually 
awake, in intelligent appreciation of spiritual principles, and 
not asleep in the things of sensuous life. “ These things have 
I said unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that 
your joy might be full.” We notice that the duty of watch¬ 
ing, or being prepared, is an element in several of the Lord’s 
parables. 


THE LORD SERVING MEN. 

The Lord girds Himself, because His Divine Love is 
always making itself ready to serve men. He makes us 
sit down to meat, by preparing us to receive the spiritual 
food of good affeCfions. And He serves us, by implanting 
His truths in our minds, and by giving us spiritual intelli¬ 
gence. 


360 


Parables of the New Testament. 


THE WATCHES, ETC. 

The first watch of the night represents a state of instruc¬ 
tion in truth. The second watch is a second state, of joining 
the known truth with our affe6Hons. And the third watch 
is a third state, of carrying out our good affections and true 
thoughts, in our good conduct. And if the Lord comes to 
us in either of the latter two watches, His coming will bless 
us; for, in either, we are prepared to receive Him. 

“ If the good-man of the house had known what hour the 
thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suf¬ 
fered his house to be broken through” (literally, dug under, 
or undermined, as if the thief dug up, from below). The 
good-man of the house is the ruling-love. If the ruling-love 
is good, it will be watchful, and on its guard against the sub¬ 
tle schemes of evil spirits, who seek to undermine it by in¬ 
sinuating false suggestions. Every falsity is a thief, coming 
to steal away our good and true things. 

And evil spirits, like thieves, do not boldly come to us in 
our clear states of rational and spiritual daylight, but in our 
natural-minded states, our darker mental periods. They 
attack us in our weaker states; and they attack us secretly. 
And, to be prepared for them, we need to be on our guard, 
and to keep always in mind the spiritual principles of regen¬ 
erate life. 


NIGHT. 

As the man of the house must retire to sleep, at night, so 
we must go down into the external uses of our daily life ; but, 
spiritually, if we carry our spiritual principles into our out¬ 
ward work, we shall be on the watch against spiritual thieves. 

In the parable of “ The Tares,” the enemy who sowed the 
tares, did so at night; but, on the other hand, in the parable 
of “The Seed Growing Secretly,” the good seed grew, both 
day and night. We are, then, to be ready, always, for the 
coming of the Son of Man, the Divine Truth, by keeping 


Waiting , with Loins' Girded and Lights Burning . 361 

the truth of the Lord’s commandments always before our 
minds, and thus keeping a watch against the secret influence 
of false doCtrines and sensuous persuasions. 

For, if we are unprepared, we cannot tell in what hour, 
or state, of mental darkness, and of spiritual and moral weak¬ 
ness, we may be overcome by evils and falses. There is no 
safety, except in always submitting ourselves to the guidance 
of the Lord’s good and truth, as revealed in His holy Word. 

THE STEWARD, ETC. 

In reply to the question of Peter, who represents our 
faith, the Lord stated that the truths in this parable are ap¬ 
plicable to us all, and to our mental conditions. The wise 
steward, made ruler over all, is the regenerate natural mind, 
which is given control over all natural duties and works, be¬ 
cause it does the will of its master, the spirit. 

But, if the natural mind relapses into evils and falses, and 
abuses the men-servants, the truths which serve with it, 
and the maidens, the natural affeCtions of the mind, the 
Divine Truth will come to it in judgment, and will cut it 
asunder, or separate it from good, and allow it to sink into 
its congenial hell. And then, the mind that sins against 
light, shall sink itself into a deeper hell, while the less the 
mind perverts its knowledge, the less will be the degree of 
its self-infli< 5 ted misery. 

We are warned, therefore, to watch the influences which 
seek to operate upon us; to see that we love good things, 
only; and to cherish the truth, to the exclusion of all falses, 
and to the rejection of all sins of conduCt. Thus, guided by 
the Lord, our natural mind can do its natural work, as the 
wise steward of our regenerate spirit. 

We keep our “loins girded” by keeping our affections 
lifted up to the Lord, and to spiritual ends and purposes. 
And we keep our lamps burning, by keeping before our 
thought the truths of the Lord’s Word, taught in the doc¬ 
trines of our Church. 


362 Parables of the New Testament . 

TRUTHS AS A SYSTEM. 

And one of the most important points, in the intelligent 
consideration of truth, is that we must keep in mind the truth 
as a complete system. Thus we can retain the application 
of truth to all things of our life, in a conneXed plan. 

ILLUSTRATION. 

A man, seeking to understand the human physical body, 
does not begin by studying the organization of a finger-nail; 
but he first acquires a general idea of the whole body, as a 
whole, and then studies its individual parts, in their relations 
to each other, and to the whole system. And, even when a 
man studies the human physical body as a connected whole, 
he does not understand man, as a complete being, until he 
comprehends the human spirit, also. 

But, when he understands the spiritual constitution of 
man, and his physical body, also, then he comprehends what 
a man is, and sees the relation and connexion between his 
various mental and physical parts. 

So, in the study of truth, we must aim to acquire an 
understanding of the truth, as a connected system, with its 
various relations and connexions. No individual truth ex¬ 
ists, independent of its connexions aud relations with other 
truths, as no living finger exists, apart from its connexions 
with the body, as a whole. Nothing is intelligently seen as 
an unconneXed faX, or idea, but as the embodiment of some 
principle. And every principle should be seen, not merely 
in its natural form but also pointing to its spiritual counter¬ 
part and cause, and finally, to its relation with the Lord. 

THE LIGHT OF TRUTH. 

To keep our lights burning, we need not merely to memo¬ 
rize a doXrine, but also to know and understand it as a liv¬ 
ing truth, applicable to our daily life. What we memorize, 


Waiting , with Loins Girded and Lights Burning. 363 

we may forget; but what we know by experience, as a prin¬ 
ciple, we do not forget. Axioms, or self-evident truths, we 
do not forget, because we see the principle that lies within 
them. But every truth is an axiom, to the mind that sees 
in the light of that truth. Every truth is self-evident, in its 
own degree, and on its own plane of life, and to the mind 
that is prepared for it. 

Spiritual truth, being spiritual light, is intelligible in its 
own light, only. And if our minds are not in such light, 
they see the truth in such aspe&s, only, as present themselves 
to our plane and degree of thought. And the higher, or 
more interior, the degree in which we; see the truth, the more 
comprehensive will be our view ol it; and the more brightly 
our mental lights will be burning. 

The principles which we work into our life, are clear to 
us. Therefore, to keep our lights burning, we are to take 
hold of a dodtrine, not merely to know it, but also to use it, in 
pradiical life; to make it a part of our thought, embodied in 
our conduct, because loved in our heart. Then we shall 
have confidence in a truth: we shall see it to be true, as a 
principle; and we shall keep it before our thought, even in 
our external states, because we shall be in the pradtice of the 
good that is involved in that truth. 

ILLUSTRATION. 

On some beautiful golden morning, when the sun is 
bright, and the air is clear, you look from your chamber 
window, and you see, before you, far away on the horizon, 
the lofty summit of a distant mountain. You know that 
mountain: its existence is, to you, a certainty. But, there 
may come many cloudy, foggy days, when you will not be 
able to see that distant mountain from your chamber window. 
But will you, on that account, looking from your window, 
on a cloudy day, doubt, or deny, the existence of that lofty 
mountain? You cannot now see it; but you have seen it; 
and know it to be there. 


364 


Parables of the New Testament. 


Why, then, should you, in your cloudy states of mind, 
doubt, or deny, the existence of a spiritual principle, which, 
in your clearest mental states, you have clearly seen and 
known? Why not keep your loins girded, and your lights 
burning, even in the darkest of mental nights? Why not 
keep clearly before your rational thought, all the good and 
the truth which your Lord has revealed to you, in your best 
and highest states ? 

Why not, like Moses upon the mountain, see the heav¬ 
enly pattern of the temple of human life, and come down 
into the level plain of natural life, to build according to the 
pattern that was shown you on the mountain ? Having, on 
the clearest morning, seen the distant mountain, you know 
the direction from your home to that mountain; and you 
would confidently journey to it, even on the cloudiest day, 
when its noble form was obscured to your vision. 

Why not, then, in the cloudy states of your mental life, 
cling to the fa6l of the certain existence of the Lord’s good 
and true principles, revealed in the light of His holy Word? 
And why not confidently journey towards the good taught 
you by the Lord, even when you are in darker mental days ? 
You may always remember the diredlion of your journey. 
Your Lord has said, “ I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” 
And His commandments will always point out the way. 

We know our way about our own house, even in the 
dark. And, if we live in our Lord’s house, we shall know 
our way about it, even in the night. We always know our 
way about a principle that we love, and which is a home to 
our spirit. For, then, we shall understand a truth as a law 
of life, upon which we spiritually live, as a plant lives by its 
laws of life. 


LAWS OF LIFE. 

Men spend much time and effort in studying the princi¬ 
ples applying to the breeding of animals, and the raising of 
crops. And breeders and farmers know that, to succeed, 


Waiting , with Loins Girded and Lights Burning. 365 

they must know something of the laws of animal and vege¬ 
table life. How much more, then, we need to know the laws 
of spiritual life, by which men are grown, as spiritual and 
immortal beings. If laws of heredity are important in rais¬ 
ing cattle and crops, they are, surely, more important in 
developing human beings. 

And he who would seek spiritual life, must keep his loins 
girded, and his lights burning, while he watches and works 
for the coming of the Lord, in every revealed truth. He 
must love the truth, and the good that is in it. And he 
must be watchful to maintain the truth in its uncorrupted 
life, and not twisted and perverted by his natural and sensu¬ 
ous tastes and opinions. 

TRUTHS PERVERTED. 

Men may wrest truth from its proper relations and con¬ 
nexions, and thus make it appear to be very different from 
its heavenly condition; as you might have a beautiful mosaic 
portrait of the Lord, wrought by a very skilful artist, placing 
each little stone in its right place; but, if you should break 
up the artist’s arrangement of the stones, and should re¬ 
arrange them to form the portrait of Judas, though the stones 
would be the same, they would present a very different face. 

In breaking up their original relation and connexion, the 
image of the Lord would be gone from them, and they 
would be perverted to the expression of an opposite char- 
aXer. So is it, always, of the utmost importance, to preserve 
truths in their integrity, and as a conneXed system, as re¬ 
vealed to us by our Lord. Then they will always preserve 
and present His Divine image; and they will lead us to grow 
into His image and His likeness. And a competent knowl¬ 
edge of truth as a system, is our proteXion against the op¬ 
posite system of falsity. 


3 66 


Parables of the New Testament. 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 

As a man, by the study of the human body in health, 
knows the conditions, and thus readily detects disease in a 
disordered body, so the man who understands the human 
mind, in its health, and as a system, deteCts the presence of 
evil and falsity, and is thus enabled to rejeCt the whole sys¬ 
tem of falsity. This is meant by binding the tares of the 
field into bundles, and burning them; i. e ., classifying, 
arranging and rejecting falsities. 

Take, for instance, the evil of anger. Everyone knows 
that it is evil, and that it is a sin, to fly into a passion, when¬ 
ever one’s self-love is wounded. And why do we not keep 
this faCt before our mental eyes, as a spiritual principle? If 
we would always do this, we should deteCt the infernal qual¬ 
ity of our tendency to anger, and we could put it down, as 
soon as it arises, and before it could come out into our con¬ 
duct. 


PREPARED. 

With our loins girded, and our lights burning, we are 
always prepared for whatever the Lord provides, or permits. 
We are ready to meet the expeCted and the unexpected. 
We do not know what the Lord has for us, until it comes. 
But we ought to do well, whatever we do. A desirable 
thing may be done so badly as to make it undesirable; as 
a friendly shore awaits a ship-wrecked mariner; but the 
method of his landing often changes the shore from a friend 
to a destroyer. An obscure man at an important post, may 
do very important work; as a humble switch-tender on a 
rail-road, may, with one turn of his arm, send a passing 
train in the right way, or plunge it to destruction. Much 
depends upon his mind being kept in a state of preparation 
for his work. 

And so is it, in all the uses of our life, however apparently 
ordinary; we cannot tell when any emergency may arise; 


Waiting , with Loins Girded and Lights Burning . 367 

and when it does arise, the man who is prepared to do his 
duty intelligently and bravely, is the one who will meet the 
case wisely. 

And his state of preparation depends upon his intelligent 
knowledge of his duty; and, spiritually, upon his compre¬ 
hensive knowledge of the truth as a system, in its various 
connexions. “ A good man shall not be afraid of evil tidings; 
his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. ... He will guide 
his affairs with discretion.” 

EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL. 

Those who live in their externals, looking at the natural 
side, only, of human life, are often surprised, and sometimes 
confused, by sudden changes of externals ; but those whose 
interiors are open to spiritual light, and who view human 
life from its inward side, are prepared for anything that may 
arise. 

They cannot, of course, foresee future faXs in outward 
things; and they do not desire to do so, knowing that such 
knowledge would take away their freedom ; but they know 
the certainty of spiritual principles; and knowing that every¬ 
thing, both natural and spiritual, must “ bring forth after its 
kind,” they know, to a certainty, what must be the outcome 
of any given principle of life, embodied in the conduX. 
They know the certainty of the fulfilment of the Lord’s gra¬ 
cious promise, “Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt 
thou dwell in the land; and verily, thou shalt be fed. De¬ 
light thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the 
desires of thine heart.” 


3 68 


Parables of the New Testament . 


XXVII. 

Ct)e 23arrcn figttxee. 

(luke xiii. 6-9.) 

RELIGION IS IN THE LIFE. 


THE VINEYARD. 

The “certain man” is the Lord, the Owner of the 
human vineyard. The vineyard is the Church, in which 
Divine truths are planted, and brought to practical fruit. 
“For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of 
Israel, and the men of Judah His pleasant plant.” In¬ 
dividually, the vineyard is the Church set up in each 
man’s understanding. 


TREES. 

A tree represents a principle implanted in the mind. 
The leaves represent knowledges, things known, in the 
memory. The blossoms represent the sentiments, or ideas 
in the thought. And the fruits represent the matured 
principles, in the life, the good works, which are the out- 
workings, or fruits, of the man’s principles. Many kinds 
of trees are mentioned in the Scriptures, especially the 
olive, the vine and the fig. These three trees represent 
the three great characteristic divisions, or phases, of 
human life, called, in the terminology of the New-Church, 
the celestial, spiritual and natural degrees. These are 
degrees differing in kind, or quality. 

In the celestial condition, represented by the olive, the 



The Barren Fig-tree . 


369 


man is governed by a love of good, and by love to the 
Lord as Divine Good. The man loves good; and he 
does good, willingly, from love. In the spiritual, or 
middle degree, represented by the grape-vine, the love of 
truth is the controlling affection. The man sees the truth 
of things, rather than their good. And he sees and 
knows God as the Divine Truth. And, in the natural, or 
lowest degree of life, represented by the fig, the man re¬ 
gards addons, rather than principles. He does good from 
a sense of duty, in obedience to the Lord’s command¬ 
ments. 


FIG-TREE. 

The fig thus represents the lowest, or outmost, degree 
of human life. All men are in the natural degree, by 
birth ; but the spiritual and celestial degrees are developed 
in the “new birth” of the re-generation. The natural 
degree relates to the outward life, and to the affeCtions 
and thoughts that dwell upon that life. Every man con¬ 
tinues to be in the natural degree, as far as his outward 
life is concerned; but, with those who become spiritual, 
or celestial, a new degree of life is developed in addition 
to, and above, or within, the natural degree. Every man 
carries within him the germs of the spiritual and celestial 
degrees, which may be opened and developed. 

In the natural-minded man, the interior degrees are not 
opened to his consciousness, even when he is regenerating. 
And his regeneration brings him into a good and orderly 
natural life, in obedience to the commandments of the Lord. 
Then his natural goodness will contain, within it, a germ 
of interior goodness. It will be natural good from a spir¬ 
itual origin, and held in connexion with the heavens. 
He will be regenerated, as far as his consciousness ex¬ 
tends ; but his mind will not enjoy the distinctive experi¬ 
ence of the spiritual or celestial degree. 

Thus, even if a man is merely a natural man, he may 


370 


Parables of the New Testament. 


become a regenerate natural man. He may keep the 
Lord’s commandments, and thus “enter into life,” ac¬ 
cording to the degree of his openness to heaven. But, if 
he does not keep the commandments, he will be evil, no 
matter how much he may know about the truth, as doc¬ 
trine. And a man who know r s, but does not obey, the 
teachings of the Lord, is a barren fig-tree, bearing ‘ ‘ no¬ 
thing but leaves.” 


THE JEWISH CHURCH. 

This was the general condition of the Jewish Church, 
at the time of the Lord’s first comifig. The Jewish Church 
was of an outward, natural character. It was, in fa<5t, not 
a Church, but merely a representative of a Church, its 
outward rites and ceremonies being figures of the mental 
life of a real and spiritual Church. 

But the Jewish Church, though external, should have 
been in the love and practice of natural good. It had 
the Divine commandments, and connexion with the heav¬ 
ens, through the prophets. The Lord was continually 
speaking to Israel, in His holy Word, in its literal sense. 
Thus, the Jews had knowledges of truth, represented by 
the leaves of the tree. “And the leaves of the tree 
were for the healing of the nations ’ i. e ., the truths were 
for pra6tice, that men might be healed of their evils. 

But the Jewish national fig-tree bore leaves, only. 
When the Lord came to the Jewish Church, He brought 
a j'udgment upon that dispensation. When He came to 
that tree, He found nothing upon it that could satisfy His 
Divine hunger for the righteousness of His people. He 
found nothing but flourishing knowledges, with inward 
and outward barrenness, as to any practical goodness. 
And by such knowledges no spiritual manhood could be 
built up. 


The Barren Fig-tree. 


371 


COMING AND SEEKING 

The owner of the vineyard “came and sought” fruit 
on the fig-tree. “Came” expresses the approach of the 
Divine Love, and “sought” represents the effort of the 
Divine Wisdom, to bring good to men, and thus to find 
good in men. These two expressions are not merely 
careless repetitions, nor are they accidental. The Word 
of the Lord is a communication to men, from the Lord, 
and it expresses the qualities of His Love and of His 
Wisdom. And, often, in the letter of the Scriptures, a 
third expression is added, relating to His Divine Power. 
“ He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to pro¬ 
claim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison 
to the bound.” These Divine qualities, though united in 
the Lord, are separated in the thought of men. There is 
no Divine wrath. God is Love; and His Love is within 
every manifestation of His Wisdom and of His Power. 

INDIVIDUAL APPLICATION. 

Historically, the parable relates to the Jews ; but per¬ 
sonally it applies to each individual man who is in the 
condition represented by the barren fig-tree ; i. e ., who is 
full of knowledges of doCtrine, but barren of any practi¬ 
cal good in life; the merely nominal Christian, who does 
not live as Jesus lived ; who, perhaps, makes a display of 
outward piety, but does not keep the Lord’s command¬ 
ments. And yet the Lord, as in the parable, tries to save 
every man, even the worst. He gives every man every 
opportunity that can possibly be of any use to him. 

THE VINE-DRESSER. 

The Divine Truth declares every such unproductive 
man to be already condemned. “Then said he unto the 
dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come, 


372 


Parables of the New Testament. 


seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and find none; cut it down ; 
why cumbereth it the ground?” Thus, the Divine Truth 
expresses condemnation of evil. But the Divine Love, 
in its Divine Providence, always seeks to save every man. 
The Divine Providence is the vine-dresser. 

These persons, the owner and the vine-dresser, are 
spoken of as two, to express the different aspedls in which 
men see the Divine Truth and the Divine Providence; 
but, in the Lord, these are one. Providence is the care 
exercised from the Divine Love, through the Divine Wis¬ 
dom, and by the Divine Power. Thus, though men see 
that, in their evil conditions, the Divine Truth condemns 
their condition, yet they are taught that the Divine Provi¬ 
dence is always operating to the uttermost, to save all 
men. 

And so the vine-dresser said to the owner, ‘ * Lord, let 
it alone this year, also, till I shall dig about it, and dung 
it; and if it bear fruit, well; and, if not, then after that 
thou shalt cut it down.” 

THE FIG-TREE. 

As the fig-tree represents natural good, good in the 
outward life, therefore, when this is genuine good, done 
from good motives, it is from a spiritual origin. Then, 
the flourishing fig-tree represents the natural man, or the 
natural mind of man, instrudled in the truths of the 
Church; and whose leaves are knowledges, and whose 
fruits are the pra<5Hcal good works of a holy life. 

But when men do works that are good in outward 
form, but are hypocritical in spirit, their good works are 
“evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil.” And 
when a man, beginning to do good a<5ts, ceases doing 
good, and does evil, from policy, during a temptation, he 
is “even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she 
is shaken of a mighty wind.” 


The Barren Fig-tree. 


373 


FRUIT-TREES. 

The chief characteristic of a fruit-tree is its fruit ; and 
so, with man, the chief point is his good, the actual fruits 
of his principles. In this good, as in the fruit, is the life- 
principle, the seed, which shall produce more good fruit. 
And so, every man, like “every tree, is known by his 
fruit.” “Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of 
thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good 
fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A 
good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a cor¬ 
rupt tree bring forth good fruit. Wherefore, by their 
fruits ye shall know them.” 

This is a very plain statement of the principle that 
whatever is in a man, will work itself out in his life. 
“ Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; 
so shall ye be My disciples.” In Isaiah, the good are 
spoken of as “trees of righteousness, the planting of the 
Lord, that He might be glorified.” And, in the first 
Psalm, it is said of the good man, “And he shall be like 
a tree, planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth 
his fruit in his season; his leaf, also, shall not wither; 
and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” 

The effort of the Divine Providence, as the vine¬ 
dresser, is to care for the spiritual fruits of the vine of 
spiritual truth, and also to do all that can be done to de¬ 
velop good fruit from every fig-tree, in men’s minds. 

THREE. 

The lord of the vineyard had looked for fruit from the 
tree, for three years. Three represents a state of fulness, 
or completeness, in regard to truth. In the Jewish 
Church, and in the individual man represented by this 
fig-tree, there was no genuine good, in either of the three 
departments of the mind’s life, the will, the understanding, 
and the conduct. That tree was filling up the measure 


374 


Parables of the New Testament. 


of its character. And so the Lord knew it would have 
to be cut down ; but, before cutting it down, every oppor¬ 
tunity would be given for a change in its character. 

UNFRUITFUL TREES. 

The unfruitful fig-tree is cut down, spiritually, when 
the natural man is destroyed by his own evils. In the 
vineyard, there is sunlight, heat and moisture, and the 
vine-dresser’s care; and, if there be any good in the fig- 
tree, it should bear fruit So, in the Church, a man has 
every opportunity to do good. The Church is open to 
him, with all its privileges, its sacraments, and the Word 
of the Lord. And the man must be at fault, if, amid all 
these advantages, he bears “nothing but leaves,’’ and re¬ 
mains unfruitful of any practical good. 

CUMBERING THE GROUND. 

The unfruitful fig-tree is said to cumber the ground ; 
i. e. y to be in the way, keeping the ground idle, when the 
same space would support a good tree. And, when the 
man of the Church is unfruitful in good, he performs no 
good use. He is not useful, himself, and he stands in the 
way of others, who might be of use, where he wastes time ; 
and he injures others by his bad example. But, as long 
as there is any opportunity for the useless man to repent, 
or, indire&ly, to serve any use to others, the Lord’s 
Providence operates upon him, as a vine-dresser. 


TO DIG, TO MANURE, ETC. 

To dig about the tree, means to instrudl the mind ; to 
help the man to investigate; and thus to remove the ob¬ 
stacles that prevent the warmth of love and the light of 
truth from reaching the man’s mind. To manure it, is 
to allow the mind to be assailed by evil, in temptation, so 


The Barren Fig-tree. 


375 


that the man may, through temptation, be lead to repent, 
and to reform. The manure, as rejected material, signi¬ 
fies evil; but the evils of the devils may be made, like 
manure, to serve a good purpose to others, in tempta¬ 
tion. 

And yet the evil men will not repent, even if given 
opportunity. But their life may serve as a warning to 
others. The Jews, long ago disbanded as a nation, or a 
Church, have been allowed to remain for centuries, with 
their characteristics still prominent ; perhaps for the good 
of others, as well as for their own possible good. 

We notice that the lord of the vineyard did not reply 
to the vine-dresser; which indicates that there was no 
hope of the Jewish Church, as a Church. And in the 
parallel passage in Matthew, the record states that “the 
fig-tree withered away.” 

This tree had as much of the heat and light of the sun 
as other trees had, and yet it remained unproductive. 
And so it is with men ; both spiritually and naturally the 
Lord “makes His sun to shine on the evil and on the 
good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” 

THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 

The kingdom of heaven is all about us, everywhere. 
It is the inward kingdom of love, wisdom and goodness. 
Like the kingdom of light, it is all about the blind man, 
but he is not conscious of its presence; he is not open to 
it; and he cannot use its blessings. The whole heavens 
are working for us, in ardent love, to lead us into a heav¬ 
enly character. Every truth of the Lord’s Word calls to 
us, in His name, saying, “Come unto Me, and I will give 
you rest.” Perhaps we know what we ought to do, but 
we have not, as yet, put down our evils to an extent 
sufficient to make good fruit grow on our fig-trees. 

If so, the Divine Providence will have to come to our 
unproductive trees, and dig about them, and manure 


376 Pai'ables of the New Testament. 

them, as a last hope of helping them. The Lord will 
give us further instruction, by means of the Church, and 
by many practical ways, in daily life. And He will per¬ 
mit us to fall into temptations, that we may recognize our 
real states, and may repent and reform. 

GROWTH. 

The growth of a tree is not by mere change, but by a 
well-defined plan. A tree must have something to grow 
from, some starting-point, some seed, or root. So, in 
our minds, all growth must have something as a starting- 
point, some seed of truth, some principle, which can take 
root in our minds. And, as the tree grows, by a definite 
plan, or law of life, so every truth grows, in our minds, 
by a well-defined heavenly law of order. It grows from 
knowledge deposited in the memory, to doCtrine under¬ 
stood, and to truth recognized, and to principle loved, 
and then to good fruit, in our daily life. And it cannot 
grow to fruit, except through this process. 

Again, as the tree must be placed amid conditions of 
growth, so the truth, in our minds, must be given every 
opportunity to be warmed by our love, lighted by our 
wisdom, and protedled by our care; i. e ., we must do 
our part to keep it in condition to receive the Lord’s love, 
wisdom and care. And it must be cared for, continually, 
to keep up the conditions of growth, and to keep away 
the weeds, and other enemies. Then we shall not be 
useless, unproductive trees, cumbering the ground which 
better men and women might more usefully occupy 


Taking the Lowest Seats. 


377 


XXVIII. 

Calling tljc Eotoc^t ^catsf. 

(luke xiv. 7-11.) 

HUMILITY. 


THE PRINCIPLE STATED. 

Divine Truth sets the regenerate mind in heavenly order. 
In this order, all the principles of human life are arranged in 
accordance with their spiritual quality. The Lord is loved 
first, and as the highest; and the neighbor is loved as our¬ 
selves. And this pra< 5 tically means that, in all the life of 
the regenerate man, in his heart, in his understanding, and 
in his condu6t, the Lord’s principles of love and wisdom, of 
good and truth, are exalted to the highest place, as the ele¬ 
ments of spiritual life in the human soul; and that, in the 
application of these principles, the interests, the rights, and 
the desires, of our neighbors, are as carefully guarded and 
served as our own. That is, we submit ourselves, in heart, 
thought, and conduct, to the guidance of the Lord’s heavenly 
principles. 

In such a life, we do not regard persons, but principles; 
and we love what is good, and think what is true, and do 
what is right, towards all persons. Good men exalt the 
Lord, and love their neighbors, as children of the Lord; and, 
in this exalted state of love, they are exalted in character. 
But he who supremely loves himself, loves evil, and does not 
love the Lord or the neighbor. And, in his intentional ex¬ 
alting of his own self-love, he forms in himself an evil char¬ 
acter, and abases, or debases, himself. But the good man 



378 


Parables of the New Testament. 


humbles himself, by submitting himself to the government 
of heavenly principles; and, in doing so, he opens his heart 
and life to the blessings of heaven, which then flow into him, 
and form a heaven in his mind and life. 

THE LITERAL SENSE. 

The literal sense of the parable is understood in connec¬ 
tion with Oriental customs. At Oriental feasts, when a guest 
enters the room, he first salutes the house. Then, carefully 
he looks over the company assembled, and, giving due con¬ 
sideration to other guests yet to arrive, he estimates what 
position he shall take, at the table, according to his rank, 
and according to his connection with the occasion of the feast. 
We readily notice that, in such a case, there is every oppor-. 
tunity for a self-seeking man to thrust himself forward, be¬ 
yond the position to which his aCtual rank, or merits, entitle 
him. The scribes and Pharisees were especially inclined 
to push themselves into too great prominence. 

After the guests are seated, the host, or master of the 
house, enters the room, salutes his guests, and takes his place 
at the head of the table. Looking along the table, he expeCts 
to find each guest in his appropriate place, according to his 
rank, or his personal connection with the occasion. And if 
the host sees any guest in a place below that to which his 
rank entitles him, the host addresses the guest, and says, 
“ Friend, come up higherat the same time pointing to the 
place which he is expeCted to take. And if that place has 
been filled, already, the man who occupies it must vacate it, 
and must, of course, rest under the inference that he has 
claimed too much for himself. 

And, in fa&, it is the privilege of the host to honor any 
one or more of the guests, at his own table, and to place 
them in a position as high as he pleases to seleCi for them. 
Therefore, it is best for a guest to be modest, and to take a 
humble place, and to wait until the host shall call him to come 
up higher. 


Taking the Lowest Seats. 


379 


SELF-PRAISE. 

Self-praise belongs to a very external state of mind. And 
the world’s experience has originated the maxim, “ Self-praise 
is no recommendation.” But immature minds are, at times, 
so engrossed with their recent discovery of their own devel¬ 
oping abilities, that they become forgetful of the abilities, 
rights and needs of others. 

Few things are more disgusting than a confirmed habit 
of conceited self-assertion. It originates in self-love. And 
it contains, within it, a feeling of contempt for others. Hence 
it flourishes in unbalanced, and immature, and selfish minds. 
But, experience and mental growth gradually lift worthy per¬ 
sons out of such a state. 

• Therefore, while a certain amount of self-assertion and 
conceit are to be expected in a youth, and while these un- 
amiable characteristics are often especially observable in the 
early stages of strong characters, yet, in the process of regen¬ 
eration, they give place to better qualities. And so, a con¬ 
ceited self-assertion, which is not especially deplorable in a' 
very young man, becomes an intolerable weakness, and a 
serious blemish, in the character of a man of mature age. 

POLICY. 

Looking at the literal sense, only, the parable would seem 
to savor considerably of worldly policy. From it, a foolish 
man might feel justified in humbling himself, outwardly, and 
temporarily, in order that he might be exalted, afterwards. 
To take a low seat, for fear we should be put down from a 
higher seat, though politic, is not a virtuous act. Spiritual- 
minded men do not pretend to humble themselves, for the 
sake of being exalted by others, as the Pharisees made broad 
their phylacteries, and prayed in the streets, to be seen of 
men. 


3 8o 


Parables of the New Testament. 


BEGINNINGS. 

The parable was given to teach the principle of humility. 
But how shall the principle of humility begin to take hold of 
a self-seeking man? Only by teaching him to set his con¬ 
duct in order. And he will do this from whatever motive 
controls his mind. But every step towards order, and into 
order, gives him an opportunity to come more fully under 
the influence of order. Thus, men begin, often, from selfish 
motives, and finally end in regeneration. 

For instance; men cease sinning, in a<5t, because they 
fear hell; and it requires a long course of Divine leading and 
teaching, before they arrive at the higher state, of shunning 
evils because they hate the hells, and love heaven. The Lord 
leads us through many things that are not good and useful,, 
but which are necessary steps in our progress out of evil, 
into good. There is a wilderness between our mental Egypt 
and our mental Canaan; and in that wilderness, there are 
hunger and drought, and wars and pestilence, and flying 
serpents and giant enemies. 

THE SPIRITUAL SENSE. THE FEAST. 

Spiritually, to be bidden, or invited, to a marriage-feast, 
is to be instrudled in truth, which suggests some good prin¬ 
ciple of life, which we can love and pradlise, and in which 
our good afiedlions can be married to our true thoughts. 
And thus we can be lifted up into a high state of regenera¬ 
tion. 

But, when we are invited to a spiritual feast, a feast of 
good principles, we must not expert that we shall attain, at 
once, the highest condition, and secure the greatest good. 
We may be beginners, only. And the principle from which 
we go to the feast may not be the highest and most interior 
principle. 


Taking the Lowest Seats. 


38i 


FAITH AND LOVE. 

At first, we ad from faith, rather than from the higher 
principle of love. For love is more interior than faith, and 
the life of love is of a higher quality than the life of faith. 
Salvation is not by “faith alone,” but by love, faith and obedi¬ 
ence. It is necessary for us to begin our journey of regen¬ 
eration by simple obedience to revealed truth. And the life 
of obedience develops, in us, a faith in the truth. But, far 
beyond this state of faith, is the higher and holier state of 
love, love of the good that is in the principle in which we 
have faith. 

But, in our earlier stages of mental progress, much of 
our work is done in faith. And, at the time, and while in 
that state, we imagine that faith is the highest principle. 
And, in placing ourselves at the Lord’s table, we imagine 
that our faith places us in the seats of honor, near to the 
Lord. But, as our Lord draws nearer to us, He teaches us 
that love is the “more honorable man,” to whom our faith 
must give place, at the feast of the spirit. The fatal mistake 
of the First Christian Church was in exalting faith above 
love, and thus in proclaiming the false dodrine of “ Salvation 
by Faith alone,” which corrupted the Church, in dodrine 
and in life. 

The Lord is the host, who invites both our faith and our 
love. But, while we are placing our faith in the highest 
position in our thought, our Lord, sitting with us at His ta¬ 
ble, at the feast of the spirit, comes to us, and says, “ Give 
this man place.” Our Lord has called our intelled, our un¬ 
derstanding, to feast on the Divine Truth. And thus our 
faith in the truth takes its place at the feast. 

But the Lord has also invited our will, our heart, to this 
spiritual feast. At first, our will, with its love, is modest: 
it takes its place in a lowly seat. And our faith asserts its 
supposed superiority. But, at the call of our Lord, we have 
the fad revealed to us, that our love, which is in our regen- 


382 


Parables of the New Testament. 


erating will or heart, is a “more honorable man” than our 
faith, which is in our regenerating understanding. 

In the presence of the Lord, and at His feasts, love out¬ 
ranks faith. And so our Lord says, to our faith, “ Give this 
man place.” And, to our love, He says, “Friend, go up 
higher;” take your proper place, as the leading principle of 
spiritual life, at the head of the table, and nearest to your 
Lord. And then we feel a sense of shame, in having long 
exalted faith above love. 


ORDER. 

In our greater enlightenment, we see that, in our Lord’s 
creation, there is order and system. It is so in our bodies, 
and in our minds. In every department of our life, there is 
gradation, from inmost to outmost, and from highest to low¬ 
est. Each afledtion, and each thought, has its assigned place, 
in the order of life. And if this order is not preserved, our 
mental health is disturbed. Physically and mentally the 
head is above the feet. 

Refle&ing upon the truth, a man sees that he is merely 
a vessel, receptive of life from the Lord; and that he has no 
cause to exalt himself; for he is no more than a tree, or a 
stone, except from the life that flows into him from the Lord. 
And the more a man sees these truths, and understands the 
source of his life, and humbly considers his own nothingness 
apart from the Lord, the more the Lord can flow in, and 
fill him with heavenly life, exalting his charadler, and bring¬ 
ing him into closer union with his Lord, as the source of 
all life. 

Thus, the more humble a man is, the more the Lord can 
say to him, “Friend, go up higher,” nearer to the Lord in 
character, and more fully in His kingdom. But, on the 
other hand, the more a man exalts himself, the less he turns 
to the Lord, and the less he can receive from the Lord. For 
he is not a friend to the Lord. For the Lord says, “Ye are 
My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.” 


Taking the Lowest Seats. 


383 


GOING UP HIGHER. 

When the guest was called to “Go up higher,” it is said, 
“then shalt thou have worship [literally, glory, or honor,] 
with them that sit at meat with thee.” The heavenly mar¬ 
riage-feast is a feast whose guests are the heavenly affedfions 
and thoughts of the regenerate will and understanding, whom 
the Lord has called to His table. They all eat of the same 
spiritual bread, or good, and drink of the same spiritual wine, 
or truth. 

And, in the company of the Lord’s invited guests, the 
honored guest has glory with those who sit at meat with 
him, i. <?., the ruling-love, drawing nearest to the Lord, is 
accepted by all the heavenly principles of the regenerate 
mind, as the guest to be placed in the position of honor, at 
the table of the Lord, where they sup with Him, and He 
with them. 


HUMILITY. 

Our association with the Lord, and our worship of Him, 
are profound according to the profundity of our acknowl¬ 
edgment that we, of ourselves, are nothing. Self-love, by 
exalting the mere man in his own esteem, a&ually abases, 
or debases, him, in chara&er, and places him in the hells. 
To humble himself before the Lord, means; pra&ically, to 
submit himself to the government of Divine principles. 
Hence, the greater our humility, the greater will be our con¬ 
junction with the Lord. 

Those who are living in the principle of love, are more 
humble than those who are characterized by faith: celestial 
angels are in greater humility than spiritual angels. And 
the power of the angel, from the Lord, is greater, the more 
fully he acknowledges that, of himself, he is nothing, and 
that, without the Lord, he “can do nothing.” Of course, 
humility means inward humility of spirit. Outward humility 
is only the outward expression of the inward feeling; and, 


384 Parables of the New Testament. 

without the inward spirit, the outward form is but a dead 
body. 

The humble man kneels, in prayer, not because he imag¬ 
ines that kneeling will make him any better, or excuse his 
evils, but because he inwardly feels the spirit of humility ; 
and this spiritual feeling expresses itself, by correspondence, 
in the bended knee and the bowed head. 

Humility is the means by which men are withheld from 
their natural tendencies to evil; for, as the man acknowl¬ 
edges himself to be nothing, and looks to the Lord, and 
obeys the Lord, the Lord can lead and guide him, and teach 
him, and also prote6l him, not only from the assaults of evils, 
but also from his own natural tendencies to evil. But the 
self-loving, self-exalting man, rejects the Lord’s guidance 
and protedlion, and casts himself into the hands of evil spir¬ 
its, and indulges his own tendencies to evil. 

HUMILITY AND CHARACTER. 

True humility is not fear of punishment, but hatred of 
evil. Genuine humility is in exa6l proportion to the eleva¬ 
tion of the man’s character; and, hence, it is greatest in the 
highest angels. Humility is not a gushing sentiment, but 
an abiding principle of life. It is not mourning over our 
past sins, but ceasing to commit sins, and living in the good 
and truth of heaven. 

Humility is a virtue, because the good man sees and 
knows his faults. But the man who sees no faults in him¬ 
self is sure to be full of glaring faults, although he is priding 
himself on his goodness. Humility is cheerful submission to 
the Divine Will. And it is shown in obedience to the Lord’s 
commandments. 

The history of the human race is a history of the gradual 
decline of humility, and of its restoration by the Lord, at His 
first and second comings. The Most Ancient Church was 
the most humble, because its people most fully understood 
their own nothingness, apart from the Lord. 


Taking the Lowest Seats. 


385 


The serpent that induced the fall of man, was the natural 
senses, in their cold-blooded, crawling life, leading men to 
exalt themselves, and their sensuous life, and thus to forget 
their spiritual life. The fall of man was a result of evil. But 
the Lord has always sought to lift men up, again, into spir¬ 
ituality of life. Exalting self is exalting evil above good, 
and falsity above truth, in our affections and thoughts. But 
he who humbles self, and puts his external life in its right 
place, as the servant of the spirit, thereby opens himself to 
the exalting influences of heavenly good and truth. 

HUMILIATION VS. HUMILITY. 

There is a certain kind of humiliation, which is compul¬ 
sory, when a man finds himself less worthy than others, and 
when he feels a bitter sense of his inferiority; and, perhaps, 
envies those who excel him in character or station. But 
this is not humility. True humility leads a man to look upon 
his superiors without envy, and upon his inferiors without 
contempt. 

When he sees goodness in others, he thanks the Lord 
for such goodness. And when others see goodness in him, 
he seeks to live in such a way as to lead other men to praise 
the Lord, and not himself, knowing that his goodness is from 
the Lord. Genuine humility is meekness of spirit. “ Blessed 
are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth i. e., they 
shall gain control of their natural mind, which is the earth of 
the mind, as distinguished from the spirit, or the heaven 
of the mind. “ The meek will He guide in judgment, and 
the meek will He teach His way.” “ What doth the Lord 
require of thee, but to love mercy, and to do justly, and to 
walk humbly with thy God?” 

SELF-ASSERTION. 

The self-asserting man lives in the hells, as to his spirit ; 
but the meek and humble man lives in heaven. Humility 


386 Parables of the New Testament. 

does not imply a sad couutenance, or a subdued manner, but 
a well-disposed heart, and a good life. How different is the 
ordinary life on earth from the life in heaven. Here, men 
are struggling for precedence, each trying to get all he can 
from others. There, each is doing all he can for others; 
and he finds his happiness in serving. And every man must 
come into this condition of mind, before he can be in heaven. 
Naturally we are selfish, and desire the praise of others. 
We love to have what, cunningly, we call encouragement, 
but what is, actually, praise. 

THE PRACTICAL MEANING. 

The meaning of the parable is clear enough for our prac¬ 
tical use. Every truth of the Lord calls us to draw nearer 
to our Lord; to come out of our selfishness, and to allow 
our Lord to form, in our minds, a heavenly marriage of 
good affections with true thoughts; to feast with the Lord, 
in His presence; to put down all evil, false and sinful things, 
and to come into a childlike innocence and simplicity ; and 
thus to allow our Lord to exalt us to higher and higher 
conditions of spiritual character. “Whosoever, therefore, 
shall humble himself, as this little child, the same is greatest 
in the kingdom of heaven.” 


The Excuses . 


387 


XXIX. 

€l)c €rcusc£. 

(luke xiv. 16-24.) 

INDIFFERENCE TO HEAVENLY LIFE. 


SUMMARY. 

Heaven is always open to him who is willing to attain a 
heavenly character. For heaven is a condition, and not 
merely a place. No power can force heaven upon a man 
who does not love heavenly qualities. The man who does 
not desire heaven, is not willing to receive it, even as a gift. 
The gates of the holy city are wide open, and yet all the 
evil men voluntarily remain outside, precisely as a bad man 
prefers to remain outside of a good character. And all who 
voluntarily remain outside of any kind of goodness of char¬ 
acter, are unwilling to be introduced into that goodness, 
even at the invitation of the Lord, Himself. 

FEASTS. 

Among the Orientals, feasts held a prominent place. 
Great men were expeCted to give feasts, according to their 
wealth and position. Marriage-feasts often lasted seven days. 
At the inauguration of a king, a great feast was made; for, 
representatively, it was said that the king was the husband 
of the country. So, at the coming of the Lord, as He was 
the Bridegroom, and the Church was the bride, it was 
appropriate that the regenerate life should be compared to a 
marriage-feast. 



388 Parables of the New Testament . 

The “great supper” mentioned in the parable, was the 
principal meal of the day; not, necessarily, in the evening. 
In fad, from the nature of the excuses given, there would 
seem to have been sufficient daylight remaining to enable 
men to view their land, and to try their oxen. It was ap¬ 
propriate, however, to call this feast a supper, because it was 
at the evening, or decline, of an old Church, or dispensation. 
The feast represents the mind’s feast in the things of spirit¬ 
ual good and truth, which feed the heart and the intellect. 
A great supper, or the principal meal, represents a mental 
feasting in the things which nourish the spirit in its ruling- 
love and its rational intelligence. It is “a feast of reason 
and a flow of soul,” in a good sense. 

THE CERTAIN MAN. 

The “certain man” who made a “great supper,” is the 
Lord, the Divine Man, who sets forth that spiritual feast in 
His holy Word, with all its good and true principles, which 
“satisfy the hungry soul with good.” “In this mountain 
shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat 
things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of mar¬ 
row, of wines on the lees, well refined.” The Lord keeps 
His table ever spread, with a feast of heavenly food for all 
who are willing to accept His gracious invitation. And the 
fulness of that feast, and the joy of partaking of it, we can 
know by experience, only. Here, in His holy Word, is 
everything necessary as food for the human soul. All vari¬ 
eties of good affedlions and true thoughts sustain the heart 
and the intelle6l. This is the feast, at which those who 
“hunger and thirst after righteousness” “shall be filled.” 

THE INVITATION. 

In a general way, the Lord invites all men to His heav¬ 
enly feast, by the teachings of His holy Word ; and he who 
hears the Word may always consider himself as invited. 


The Excuses. 


3§9 


But, when the man is in condition to profit by a nearer ap¬ 
proach of truth to his mind, some particular truth, as a serv¬ 
ant of the Lord, comes to him, and announces to him the 
readiness of the heavenly feast, and the special invitation of 
the Lord, to him. “And the Spirit and the Bride say, 
come.” 


WITH ONE CONSENT. 

But, in the parable, the invited guests “all, with one 
consent, began to make excuse; ” not by an agreement, or 
collusion, but by a common purpose. There was a consen¬ 
sus, a unanimity of purpose, and, therefore, a unanimity of 
results. All over the world, like causes produce like re¬ 
sults. Beasts and birds of the same kind have similar habits. 
The robin sings the same song, and builds the same kind of 
nest, wherever it dwells. So, minds with the same kind of rul¬ 
ing-love, though unseen and unknown to each other, speak 
and a< 5 t by a consensus, a common purpose. Those who do 
not love the good and true principles of heaven, do not wish 
to be united with the Lord, in a spiritual feast. 

Self, in its myriad forms, has an inward quality of char- 
a6ter, common to all its varieties ; and it speaks from a com¬ 
mon antagonism to goodness, and a common indifference to 
truth. The truths of the holy Word may have been planted 
in the natural mind, but the briars and thorns of sensuous 
life have sprung up, and have choked the Word, and ren¬ 
dered it unfruitful. 

HISTORICAL APPLICATION. 

Historically, the feast was spread before the Jews, in the 
Old Testament Scriptures, which opened a communication 
between heaven and earth. And the Jews, having the light, 
should have walked in the light. But, from various worldly 
and selfish purposes, they almost all begged to be excused 
from the heavenly feast, which their sensuous souls could 
not appreciate. 


390 


Parables of the New Testament. 


THREE EXCUSES. 

In the parable, only three excuses are given; and yet it 
is said that all those who were invited wished to be excused. 
These three excuses are characteristic of the three general 
states of unregenerate men ; and all particular excuses would 
be classified under these three general heads; viz., excuses 
made by those who are in false doctrines; by those who are 
in evil affections; and by those who have conjoined evil 
and falsity in their bad lives. 

THE FIRST EXCUSE. 

The first man had “bought a piece of ground,” [literally, 
a field,] and he wanted to “go and see it.” The field, in 
which the seeds are sown, represents the mind, in which 
truths are sown. Here, the reference is to the intellectual 
side of the mind. The man was invited to the grand feast 
of truth and good, in the Lord’s Word. But he had no ap¬ 
petite for such food. He had already been attracted by 
some false principle, and he had bought it, adopted it, as his 
own ; and now he wanted to go to it, with his affections, and 
see it, more fully, in his thoughts, that he might confirm it. 
He wanted to make it fully his own. He was more inter¬ 
ested in it than in the good and true principles of the Lord’s 
Word. Therefore, he could not go to the Lord’s feast. 
And when a clear truth, as a servant of the Lord, announced 
to him his practical duty, he acknowledged his original in¬ 
tention to accept, but begged to be excused, at present, be¬ 
cause he was pre-occupied with his own selfish concerns. 

THE SECOND EXCUSE. 

The second man had bought five yoke of oxen, and 
wanted to go to prove, or try, them, before closing the bar¬ 
gain. Oxen were used by the Orientals in all their agricult¬ 
ural labors. And it was important to test oxen on sale, to 


The Excuses. 


39i 


see if they were well-trained, and strong, and healthy. The 
ox represents the natural affe&ions, the every-day feelings 
with which we work our way along through life. In good 
men, the oxen of the mind are the good natural affe&ions; 
but, in unregenerate men, the oxen would represent evil nat¬ 
ural affections, selfish and unregenerate. They are the 
natural lusts of evil, which are not willing to go to the Lord’s 
feast. 

These oxen were yoked in pairs, or joined together in 
their work, co-operating, in a common purpose. Five yoke 
would be ten oxen. Ten here represents all the unregener¬ 
ate affe6Hons of the natural mind. So, our ten fingers, and 
ten toes, represent all the duties of our natural life, which 
flow forth from all our affeCiions. To prove these mental 
oxen, these natural affections, is to operate them, to in¬ 
dulge them, to see how much delight we can secure from 
them. And when we are indulging our evil natural affec¬ 
tions, we beg to be excused from going to the Lord’s heav¬ 
enly feast. 


THE THIRD EXCUSE. 

The third man had married; and he thought he ought 
to be excused from any prior engagements. In faCt, he did 
not ask to be excused, but said plainly, “ Therefore I cannot 
come.” The heavenly marriage is a mental marriage of 
our good affeCIions with our true thoughts, the union of our 
regenerate will and understanding, in the grand purpose of 
regeneration. But the opposite to this is the infernal marriage 
of our evil affe<ffions and our false thoughts, the union of 
our unregenerate will and understanding, in the common 
purposes of selfishness. Those who are in this condition are 
averse to any heavenly feast; and they plainly say, “ I can¬ 
not come.” They are pre-occupied. They prefer their own 
feast. 


392 


Parables of the New Testament . 


PRETEXTS. 

Now, in the literal sense, these excuses were pretexts, for 
men who did not desire to attend the feast. The land could 
have been seen on the next day; and the oxen could have 
been proven on the morrow. And, if the wife could not have 
been taken to the feast, there would not have been any diffi¬ 
culty in the husband fulfilling his engagement; for in those 
days, and in that country, women were regarded as inferior 
to men, and they had very little to say about what was to be 
done. None of these excuses would have been offered by 
men who desired to attend the feast. Or they could have 
arranged these matters so as not to interfere with the pre¬ 
vious engagement of the feast. 

But this fa6f makes these excuses better represent the ex¬ 
cuses of the unregenerate man, when called to the heavenly 
feast of good and truth. These three excuses cover the 
whole catalogue of our excuses, to-day, in our efforts to 
justify ourselves in our indifference to spiritual matters; the 
needs of business, the work for property, and domestic cares. 
How large these things seem to be, on a Sunday morning, 
to a man, or woman, whose mind is fixed on external matters. 
Notice, too, that all these excuses come from our natural in¬ 
clinations, and not from our judgment; they are not logical, 
but easily refuted. They are not honest. 

THE LITERAL LESSON. 

Literally, the parable does not deal with unlawful things. 
It was right for men to buy new fields, and to see them ; and 
to buy new oxen, and try them; and to marry. But, in 
the literal sense, the lesson is against allowing our minds to 
be so pre-occupied with natural matters, as to make us ne- 
gle6t spiritual things. But, in fa< 5 t, the temptation is more 
subtle, because we do not recognize it to be a temptation. 

But, after all, what underlies all this pre-occupation of the 
mind in outward things? Self. Self is what alienates us 


The Excuses . 


393 


from the Lord, and makes us either opposed, or indifferent, 
to the Lord’s feast. There is another way of buying a field, 
as in the parable of “The Hidden Treasure,” where the man 
purchased the field of truth because it contained the great 
treasure of golden goodness. And there is another way to 
go to the plow, with our oxen, and not to look back to the 
things of unregenerate life. And there is another way to 
marry, in which we shall not be drawn away from heaven, 
but, in the marriage of goodness with truth, be led more and 
more fully into heaven. 

THE SECOND COMPANY INVITED. 

When all the invited guests had sent excuses, “that serv¬ 
ant came, and showed unto his lord those things. Then the 
master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, Go out, 
quickly, into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in 
hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.” 
These were the classes who were generally beggars, who are 
very numerous in Oriental lands. The anger of the master 
is stated, to represent the opposition that exists between 
good and evil. The Lord is not angry against evil men ; 
He is Love, itself. But the offending natural man naturally 
imagines that the Lord is angry. At the Oriental feasts, 
when the invited guests had satisfied themselves, they 
promptly left the table; and, if any food remained, anyone 
passing by, or any poor man who came to the neighborhood, 
being attradled by a knowledge of the feast, would be invited 
to sit down, and to partake. And this went on, until all the 
provisions were consumed. Nothing carried to the table 
was taken away, again ; but even the beggars were called in 
to consume the remains. And so, the condition of things 
named in the parable was not at all unusual. 

REPRESENTATIVE MEANING. 

In a certain representative sense, those invited to the feast 


394 


Parables of the New Testament. 


were the Jews, who had the Lord’s Word; and the others, 
who came in when the Jews refused, were the Gentiles, whom 
the Jews regarded as outcasts. 

A city, built up for the homes of men, represents a sys¬ 
tem of doctrines, built up in the mind. The holy city, New 
Jerusalem, is a system of true dodtrine, coming down from 
God, out of heaven, to the minds of men. The streets and 
lanes of the city, the ways by which men pass about, repre¬ 
sent the mental ways, the truths of dodtrine, in their greater 
and lesser forms, in general, and in particular. These truths 
are in the letter of the Word of the Lord. 

When the servant of the Lord, the Divine Truth, calls to 
our natural affedtions, and announces truth to our natural 
understanding, and these are so pre-occupied with their own 
matters that they decline to attend the feast of the Lord ; 
then, in His loving providence, the Lord sends out His serv¬ 
ants, again, to call to His feast all who are in a Gentile state, 
uninstrudled, but well-disposed. Thus the Word of the 
Lord goes out to all men, seeking to save all. Wherever 
there is any knowledge of the Word of God, the truth, as 
the Lord’s servant, enters into the mind that knows the 
Word, and calls that mind to the heavenly feast of regenerate 
life. 


THE THIRD COMPANY 

Those who are in “the high-ways and hedges” are out¬ 
side of the city, in the surburbs; and these represent those 
who are out of the Church, and without a knowledge of the 
Lord’s Word. And at the Lord’s feast, there is room for 
them all, if they will depart from evil and do good. 

PERSONAL APPLICATION. 

And, in an individual sense, our Lord sends the truth to 
our ruling-love and its leading thoughts ; and when they re¬ 
fuse to go to His heavenly feast, He still sends the truth to 


The Excuses. 


395 


our minds, to arouse, if possible, whatever there is, in us, 
of a Gentile state, disposed to listen to the truth. In our 
natural self-esteem, we regard the things of our self-hood as 
the best things within us; but we finally learn that, after all, 
the things which we have thought to be mere poor, lame, 
maimed, and blind things, the outcasts of our minds, the 
simple, childlike, Gentile states of our minds, are the things 
which attend the feast of the Lord, to take the places re¬ 
jected by our self-exalting feelings and thoughts. 

In our unregenerate state, we despise the beginnings of 
a better life; and yet our Lord succeeds in saving us from 
our own evils, not by means of our mental scribes and 
Pharisees, strutting in their supposed glory, but by the des¬ 
pised things of an humble, gentle, childlike state, which the 
Lord’s truth finally develops within us. 

Of course, the ruling-love must be regenerated; but it 
will then be a very different quality of love from that which 
characterized our earlier states of life. Those persons, and 
those principles in us, which feel poor in their humility; and 
which are maimed by the adulterated quality of their good¬ 
ness ; and which are halt, or lame, in their ignorance of gen¬ 
uine truth, by which mentally to walk; and which are blind, 
in their inability to see the truth ; these, even in their wretch¬ 
ed condition, are more receptive of heavenly help, and more 
disposed to receive that help, because they know and ac¬ 
knowledge their own ignorance and unworthiness. None 
are so hard to feed, as those who have no sense of their 
need. 


COMPELLING. 

It is said that the servant was instru&ed to “compel” 
those in the highways and hedges to come in. Evidently, 
the power used was not physical force, for what could one 
servant do, to drive into the city, and into the house, a horde 
of beggars and wanderers mostly disabled ? The force used 
was simply entreaty. They were not compelled against their 


396 Parables of the New Testament . 

inclinations, for they would be glad to go. Their disinclin¬ 
ation, if any existed, would be because of their confessed 
unworthiness, or their unpresentable condition. They would 
need the gentle compulsion of encouragement, and assur¬ 
ance of welcome. 

And does not our Lord, in His holy Word, constantly 
compel us, in the same gentle way? Does He not compel 
us to see that His love covers us all? Does He not say to 
us all, “ Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, 
and I will give you rest?” “Him that cometh to Me, I will 
in no wise cast out.” The Lord gives men an invitation, by 
addressing their understandings; and, afterwards, He re¬ 
peats His invitation, by addressing their hearts. 

The parable bears a close resemblance to the parable of 
“The Marriage of the King’s Son,” but the two accounts 
were spoken at different times, and are not identical. And 
there are marked differences between the particulars taught 
in them. 


THOSE WHO ACCEPT. 

In the text we have noticed that the higher classes re¬ 
jected the Lord’s invitations ; but “ the common people heard 
Him gladly,” for their minds were not pre-occupied with 
“the traditions of the elders,” and the love of power and 
place. The truth was “hidden from the [self-styled] wise 
and prudent,” and was “revealed unto babes.” The spirit¬ 
ual marriage of regeneration is attainable by those, only, 
who join good and truth in a good life; and not by those 
who know the truth, but fail to do it. “ He hath filled the 
hungry with good things, but the rich He hath sent empty 
away.” “ Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after right¬ 
eousness, for they shall be filled.” 

Those who are filled and satisfied with self-love .“do not 
know what inward satisfactions are, because they do not read 
the Word, and look to the Lord; but they only know what 
outward things are, in which alone they delight. Of inter- 


The Excuses. 


397 


nal satisfactions they are not receptible” (A. E., 1162). 
The Lord gives, to every man, all that the man will receive 
of heavenly life. 


EXCUSES VS. REASONS. 

Of course, we must carefully distinguish oetween mere 
excuses and reasons. A man may have a good reason why 
he cannot do certain things, which he would like to do. 
Reasons are generally affirmative; they show cause. But 
excuses are generally negative, showing a lack of interest. 

We can see how a pre-occupied state of mind induces 
men to be indifferent to the truth, as, for instance, it comes to 
them in the teachings of the New-Church. The mass of 
men have their minds pre-occupied with their sensuous de¬ 
sires and plans. They feel no hunger for anything spiritual. 
Others are pre-occupied with their own ideas, prejudices, 
pride of opinion, lust of originality, etc.; which so fill their 
minds that they have no room for spiritual truth. Others 
have so confirmed the prevailing theories of the different 
sects, that they do not expect any new truth, and are satis¬ 
fied that no new truth is to come to men. Others are pre-oc¬ 
cupied with the theories of natural science, and are contempt¬ 
uous towards any suggestion of spiritual things. 

And so, from various causes, we hear the same old cry, 
to-day, in the Lord’s Second Coming, that was made in His 
First Coming, “ Have any of the rulers, or of the Pharisees, 
believed on Him ?” Of course not; their minds are pre-oc¬ 
cupied. And they are rejecting the Lord, now, as they did 
then, because He comes in a way unexpected to them. 

OUR EXCUSES. 

Does it seem impossible that men should reject the 
Lord’s invitation? Look at our own lives. Every truth 
that we know is a standing invitation to the Lord’s feast. 
And every time we do what is not as good as we know how 


398 Parables of the New Testament. 

to do, (and can do, if we will,) we rejedl the Lord’s invitation, 
to the extent of our failure. Peter felt sure that he would 
not deny the Lord; but he did deny Jesus, and repeated his 
denial. Have we not some habits which we do not want to 
give up ; some so-called small vices? And do we not, some¬ 
times, speak of these habits, as excuses for not fully accept¬ 
ing our Lord’s invitation? Are we not, then, willing to 
rejedl the Lord’s feast, for our habits? Are we not so pre¬ 
occupied with our habits that we negledl the Lord’s feast? 

How easily we find excuses for what we do not desire to 
do. And how the habit of making excuses grows upon us. 
How often we think we would like to accept the Lord’s in¬ 
vitation to greater spirituality of charadler, but the invitation 
seems to come just at the wrong time, when we are so very 
much pre-occupied with worldly and selfish plans, that it 
would be especially inconvenient at present, to follow the 
Lord very closely. We say to the truth, For this time, we 
pray thee, have me excused. But it will never be conve¬ 
nient for our self-love, and our love of the world, to lose their 
control over us. We must go to the Lord, for new impulses, 
and for a new direction for our feelings and thoughts. 

THE GOOD TIME COMING. 

Men talk about the “ Good Time Coming,” and long for 
it, instead of working for it, by shunning evils, and going to 
the Lord, to feast in the things of heaven. The good time 
is now, if we will to have it so. It is one thing to possess 
great privileges, and another thing to use them wisely. An 
invitation is not equivalent to participation in the feast, either 
socially or spiritually. Many things may occur, to prevent 
our attendance. Character is what fits a man for the spirit¬ 
ual feast, or excludes him from it. The pradlical acceptance 
of the Lord’s invitation is obedience to His commandments. 
“ If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” All 
disobedience to the commandments is a practical rejedlion 
of the Divine invitation to heaven. 


The Excuses. 


399 


The Lord’s invitations are always for the present. “To¬ 
day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” 
“Son, go work, to-day, in My vineyard.” Worshipping the 
Lord does not consist merely in going to church, but in 
shunning evils, and in doing good. Sometimes, the popular 
and elegant church is pleasant to us from merely external 
reasons. It is as “a very lovely song of one that hath a 
pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument.” 
Coming to the Lord is coming out of evils. “ Blessed are 
they that are called to the marriage-supper of the Lamb.” 
“Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they 
may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in, through 
the gates, into the city.” “Wherefore do ye spend money 
for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which 
satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto Me, and eat ye that 
which is good; and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” 


400 


Parables of the New Testament . 


XXX. 

2&uili)in& a Cotucr, and Quaking UDar. 

(luke xiv. 28-33.) 

THE COST OF REGENERATION. 


SUMMARY. 

Self-love is the devil, the great enemy, against which, in 
its many forms, we have to contend. And, in our warfare 
against self-love, we have need to count the cost of the con¬ 
flict, to know whether we are prepared to engage in it, and 
whether we can carry it to completion. And it is wise to 
know its requirements and its dangers, that we may not mis¬ 
understand what lies before us, and may not lose courage 
during its progress. The work of regeneration is a com¬ 
plete reorganization of our conscious mental life. It is an 
abandoning of our cherished affeCtions, thoughts and con¬ 
duct, and the adoption of new motives, new plans, and new 
habits. 


THE DOUBLE PARABLE. 

Although in the literal sense, there is no intimate con¬ 
nection between the two parts of this double parable, yet 
such a connexion clearly appears, in the inward, or spiritual, 
meaning. The first part, about the tower, regards what we 
have to do, and whether our resources are sufficient for the 
work. And the second part, about the war, relates to what 
others are doing against us, and whether we can overcome 
their opposition. 



Building a Tower , and Making War. 


401 


Thus, at the outset, the man is called seriously to inquire 
concerning - himself; first, whether he has sufficient knowl¬ 
edge of the truth to guide him in seeking regeneration, and 
sufficient sincerity of heart to persevere in doing the truth; 
and, secondly, whether he will be able to meet, and to over¬ 
come, the continued assaults and opposition on the part of 
evil influences, both in his own natural and hereditary inclin¬ 
ations, and in the persons of evil spirits. For, the more 
earnestly we seek regeneration, the more persistently all evil 
influences combine to break us down, and to destroy us. 
But the Lord guards and guides us, as far as we are willing 
to accept His guidance, by learning His truth, and living ac¬ 
cording to it. 

THE TOWER. 

A tower had two uses, observation and protection. 
The height of the tower gives opportunity for observing the 
approach of an enemy ; and its strength serves for defence, 
when attacked. The tower represents inteiior truth, truth 
elevated above the surface of things, and giving a higher 
point of thought, and, hence, greater protection against evil 
and falsity. 

In an elevated state of thought, from the stand-point of 
interior truth, spiritual truth, the rational mind, as a watch¬ 
man, sees and comprehends the state of things, and views 
the approaching dangers of sensuous life. “The name of 
the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and 
is safe.” And so, when evil assaults us, we seek safety in 
our understanding of interior truth, truth raised to a high 
stand-point, elevated above the outward appearances of 
things. In such truth we find safety and protection. For, 
by understanding the inward principles which govern the 
various things of human life, we are forewarned, and also 
protected, against superficial and worldly views and thoughts. 
Any man who understands the spiritual causes of things can 
readily comprehend the outward embodiments and manifest¬ 
ations of such causes. 


402 Parables of the New Testament. 

The tower, then, represents interior truth. And, as the 
tower is built of stones, successively placed, one upon an¬ 
other, gradually elevating the structure, so, our mental tower 
of interior truth is gradually reared above our senses, by 
placing in it, one after another, the literal truths of the 
Lord’s holy Word, understood rationally, and in the light 
of spiritual truth. As we comprehend a literal truth, and 
see its inward phases, we elevate it above the region of our 
senses; we build it into our mental tower. And when we 
have built the essential laws of life into a complete structure, 
an orderly system of rationally-understood principles of in¬ 
terior life, we have our mental tower complete. From its 
height we can look down upon the life of the senses, observe 
the approaching dangers, and prepare ourselves to meet and 
to resist them. 

A man “intending to build a tower,” is, then, a mind 
purposing to elevate its understanding of the truths of the 
Word of God, so as to form a system of interior truth, for 
spiritual knowledge, and for prote&ion against evil. Now, 
when a man purposes to build such a tower, he should first 
sit down, and count the cost of it, to see whether he is able 
to finish it; i. e ., he is to consider the quality of interior 
truth, and rationally to see whether his mind is prepared to 
enter fully into the understanding of interior truth, and to 
follow that truth to its legitimate results. 

ILLUSTRATION. 

For instance: natural scientists, who view everything 
from an outward stand-point, and who see in the light of the 
senses, very often imagine that they fully understand human 
life, when the fa6l is that they have never elevated their minds 
above the natural plane of thought; and, in fa6t, they often 
deny the existence of anything higher than the natural plane 
of life. Such minds are not in condition to build a spiritual 
tower; they have not the mental means to finish it. And 
their mental adlion, in attempting to view spiritual truth from 


Building a Tower , and Making War. 403 

the plane of the senses, is, when seen in spiritual light, shown 
to be as unwise as that of the man who begins to build with¬ 
out estimates of expense, and who is not able to complete 
his building. 


BUILDING THE TOWER. 

The spiritual tower, which is to stand through eternity, 
should be built carefully and strongly, as well as in an ele¬ 
vated position. The tower is begun, when we learn the truth ; 
and it is carried upward, as we understand the truth ; and it 
is completed as we love the truth. And then it is used, as 
we pradise the truth, in its higher and more interior aspeds. 
Interior truths, truths rationally understood and loved, elevate 
our minds into conjunction with the Lord. 

COUNTING- THE COST. 

Now, when we intend to build this spiritual tower, to ele¬ 
vate our understanding of the truth into spiritual light, do 
we recognize the cost of such building? Many persons, dur¬ 
ing church-revivals, think they are converted: but a large 
majority of such converts back-slide into the world, again. 
Were they not sincere, at the time? Yes ; but they did not 
count the cost; and they undertook what they could not 
sustain and complete. They had an emotional interest in 
the truths of the Divine Word ; but, by and by, when tribu¬ 
lation and persecution of their natural desires arose, because 
of the new truths from the Lord’s Word, they were offended. 
Like the seed sown on stony ground, and with no depth of 
root, their conversion withered away. They were not will¬ 
ing to give up self-love. Regeneration was too costly for 
them. 

And, in fad, regeneration costs us more and more, the 
further we rise in it. The reason why one man is regener¬ 
ated to one degree, and another to a higher degree, is that 
the latter is willing to endure the greater cost, spiritually; i. e ., 


404 Parables of the New Testament. 

he is willing to cast out selfishness to a greater degree. It 
costs more, mentally, to be spiritual-minded, than to be nat¬ 
ural-minded ; and it costs more to be celestial than to be 
spiritual. 


MOCKING US. 

Now, if we begin building our mental tower by thinking 
of truth, and do not complete it by loving and practising the 
truth, our evils and falsities will mock us; they will bring 
truth into contempt, in our natural minds. We shall be sin¬ 
ning against light, and, therefore, more censurable than if 
ignorant. 


RESISTING ATTACKS. 

Now, if we have a knowledge of the truth, as material 
for building the mental tower, and a determination to build, 
in the love and practice of truth, a further question arises: 
are we able to stand against all the assaults that will be made 
upon us, from within, by our own inclinations towards evil, 
and from without, by evil spirits, and by bad men on earth. 

THE TWO KINGS. 

“What king, going to make war against another king, 
sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able, 
with ten thousand, to meet him that cometh against him with 
twenty thousand.” The first king is the truth, as ruler of 
the regenerating mind. And the king against which he goes, 
is falsity, which rules in the unregenerate natural mind. 

THE SOLDIERS. 

The “ten thousand” soldiers of the truth are the “re¬ 
mains,” states of good and truth stored up in the man’s in¬ 
terior mind, by the Lord. These are the means by which 
the man fights against the falsities that assail his thought. 


Building a Bower , and Making War. 


405 


For, if a man has no good and truth in his mind, from the 
Lord, he will not fight for good and truth, nor against evil 
and falsity. 

The “twenty thousand” soldiers of the other king, or 
falsity, are all the sensuous states of evil and falsity, in the 
natural mind, which oppose the advance and triumph of the 
truth, in building up the regenerate life. And these sensuous 
states appear to be twice as numerous as the good and true 
things of the spirit. Twenty, as twice ten, represents “re¬ 
mains ” of a superior kind. But in the parable, being used 
in a bad sense, tw r enty signifies the perversion of such “re¬ 
mains,” the sensuous evils and falses which destroy “re¬ 
mains.” 

The war that is waged between the two kings, truth and 
falsity, is the series of temptations, which come upon the re¬ 
generating mind ; and by means of which our evils are seen 
and known ; and which thus afford us opportunities to over¬ 
come evil, and to confirm ourselves in good. By means of 
temptations the interior mind is opened. 

SITTING DOWN AND COUNTING. 

In each part of the parable, the person is said to “sit 
down,” to count the cost, etc., and to consult, etc. Sitting, 
as a more fixed position than standing or walking, relates to 
the state of the man’s will, or heart. We sit down in a prin¬ 
ciple, when we fix our afifeCtion upon it. And to “count 
the cost,” and to “consult,” refer to the intellectual effort, 
when the thought is fixed upon the principle involved. To 
distinguish these different mental conditions, the conduCt, the 
thought, and the afifeCtion, it is said, in the first Psalm, 
“ Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the 
ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in 
the seat of the scornful.” 

A man sits down and counts, or consults, when both his 
will and his understanding are engaged in the work. The 
intelleCl counts up, for the heart; and the heart, in fixing its 


406 Parables of the New Testament. 

affections, consults the intellect. In this consulting, the mind 
is able to see something of the quality of its own motives, 
purposes and plans. And we attain conjunction with the 
Lord, by His Word, in the degree in which we fight against 
our own tendencies to evil and falsity, as made known in the 
light of the Lord’s Word. 

THE WARFARE. 

The religious life is a constant warfare against our lower 
nature. And we are forewarned of the trials that beset us ; 
and thus we are forearmed, to meet these trials. We have 
need to understand the system of truth which arms us for the 
fight, and to look to the Lord for strength to maintain the 
war. 


SEEKING PEACE. 

If we are not in thorough earnest, in the work of regen¬ 
eration, we shall be alarmed at the power of our evil inclina¬ 
tions, and we shall try to make peace with them, without act¬ 
ually casting them out. Like the king who cannot contend 
against the advancing enemy, we shall send an ambassage, 
and make terms with our natural evils, and try to substitute 
outward piety for inward principle, embodied in outward 
obedience to the truth. “Whosoever he be, of you, that 
forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple.” 
He must renounce all his old life of selfishness, and not at¬ 
tempt to make peace with it, under cover of outward 
piety. 


THE COST. 

We should ask ourselves the aCtual cost of regeneration. 
Spiritual life is the free gift of the Lord. But we must, as 
of ourselves, work for this gift. We are ignorant, and we 
need instruction from the Lord. The Lord’s commandments 
are the outward laws of human conduCt; and, when rationally 


Building a Tower , and Making War. 407 

understood, they are also seen to be the inward principles of 
all life. Truth is free; but it must be learned. 

Our regeneration must, then, cost us the labor of learn¬ 
ing the truth, and of unlearning the wrong ideas that we 
have imbibed. And, again, regeneration will cost us self- 
restraint. And this is a very heavy cost. There is no way 
to attain a virtue, but by ceasing to indulge the vice which is 
opposite to that virtue. For instance: honesty is acquired, 
by starving out our natural tendency to be dishonest. A 
good temper is acquired, by continued control aud resist¬ 
ance to the inclinations of a bad temper. 

Again, regeneration will cost us the giving up our self- 
will, and of our self-intelligence. We must learn to rely, 
not on our own will, nor on our supposed intelligence, but 
upon the good which the Lord gives us, in our practice of 
His truth, and upon His revelation of truth. 

Regeneration will cost us our self-righteousness. We 
need to learn that we are not perfedf, but inclined to evil. 
Again, it will cost us our bad habits, which must be given 
up. They must go, with the old life that formed them. 
Their giving up must be full and unconditional, without any 
attempt to save our favorite sins, or our little sins. 

Again, regeneration will cost us our love of the world’s 
praise. We must work for character, not for reputation. 
As we rise above the world’s standards, we forfeit its sympa¬ 
thy ; for the world never forgives those who condemn its evils, 
and disturb its sensuous pleasures. We must be ready to 
hear the world turn against us, and call us enthusiasts, cranks, 
or hyprocrites. The man who builds his mental tower above 
the surface of the world’s life, must expe< 5 t to be misun¬ 
derstood and disliked. Again, regeneration will cost us 
many of our worldly plans, which, being based on self-love, 
must be abandoned. 


THE CALCULATION. 


Now, does this cost seem too great? Do we doubt 


408 Parables of the New Testament. 

whether the gain balances the cost? If we are not in earn¬ 
est, we shall not accomplish anything. If the Lord is not 
superintending our building, it will amount to nothing. “ Ex¬ 
cept the Lord, build the house, they labor in vain, that build 
it.” In our unregenerate states, we are animals, with unde¬ 
veloped human capacities. By regeneration, we become 
angels ; but, without it, we become satans or devils. Is not 
regeneration, then, worth all it will cost us? Regeneration 
is the pra6tical work of putting away the infernal tendencies 
of our character. In an unregenerate state, we imagine it to 
be a great loss, to part with our evils. But, after we part 
with them, we see that we are happier without them; and 
that parting with evil is like parting with physical disease, a 
thing to be eagerly desired and sought. 

Our physical body seems to be an essential part of us, 
and necessary to our happiness; but, in the spiritual world, 
being in a full spiritual body, we shall never miss our natural 
body; and we shall be vastly freer without it. So, without 
our natural unregenerate life, we shall be far freer and hap¬ 
pier. Thus, the costs of regeneration are apparent, rather 
than real; regeneration is costly to our selfishness, but the 
things that we part with are worse than useless. The cost 
of the work reveals the nature of it, and the means of doing 
it. 

Sometimes, a superficial person says, “ I wish I had not 
made any attempt at regeneration; for, the more I try, the 
more trouble I have. Just as I think I am doing well, spirit¬ 
ually, some evil comes up, in me, that I never knew of, before. 
I had more rest, before I began to try to do right.” Of 
course he had ; but what kind of rest was it? It was a false 
security, which was not aware of the existing danger. It 
was the fancied security of the blind man, walking into a pit 
which he did not see. And now he knows the danger; and 
of course, he cannot rest, until he escapes it. 


Building a Tower , and Making War. 


409 


SPIRITUAL TEMPTATIONS. 

Spiritual temptations come to regenerating men, only. 
Others have worldly anxieties; but no one has spiritual 
temptations, until he is fighting for his spiritual life, and 
against his own evils. If the tree can be made to bear good 
fruit, the Lord “purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” 
It is said of evil men, “ Because they have no changes, there¬ 
fore they fear not God.” But a regenerating man is chang¬ 
ing, in character; and trials are the means by which he 
changes. 

The sick man is told that restored health can come to him, 
only with reformed habits of life. Of course, it is a trial, to 
him, to break off his old habits. But it is worth while. 
Gradually his blood is improved, and his health restored. 
So is it, spiritually; as the man reforms his life, gradually his 
old affections, thoughts and conduCl, give way to new ones; 
and he becomes a new man. Good can come to us only as 
we resist evil. There is no other way to secure spiritual 
good. A man cannot serve both God and mammon, at the 
same time. We cannot take into heaven anything that par¬ 
takes of evil; for evil is hell. If we go to heaven, we must 
leave all the hells behind us. And to go to heaven means 
to go into the understanding, love and praCtice of heavenly 
principles of life. And pra&ically, this means that we are to 
put away our faults, and to acquire the opposite virtues. 

ENCOURAGEMENT. 

Now, in the light of these truths, we can see that it should 
be encouraging to a man, to find himself in spiritual tempt¬ 
ations ; for it indicates that he has an earnest interest in 
spiritual principles, and that he is regenerating. If not, he 
would yield to evil, and not resist it. The greater the trial, 
the greater the spiritual gain, when we resist the evil. 

And, if we only stand steadfast, there is no danger in 
temptation. “As thy days, so shall thy strength be.” It is 


410 Parables of the New Testament. 

the Lord who really fights for us, and in us, against evil: 
and nothing can conquer Him. And nothing can conquer 
us, if we stand on His commandments. In His merciful 
providence, our Lord permits no man to enter “interiorly 
into the truths of faith, and the goods of love, except so far 
as he can be kept in them, to the end of his life” (D. P., 
232). 

And there is compensation in all trials. If it were not 
for the darkness, we should know nothing of the stars. All 
things tend to the spiritual good of Him who works for good. 
“ All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth to such as 
keep His covenant and His testimonies.” As soon as the 
man learns to hate evil, it ceases to be hard to give up evil. 
The parable shows us that the life of regeneration is no light 
matter, to be accomplished in a moment of enthusiasm. It 
is a life-work: and “ he that endureth to the end shall be 
saved.” 


The Lost Sheep. 


4i i 


XXXI. 

€1 )t 5tto£t 

(LUKE XV. 3-7.) 

THE LORE'S SAVING LOVE. 


THE DIVINE LOVE. 

The Divine Love is a love of giving. The Lord, Jesus 
Christ, came on earth to save those who were lost in evil 
and sin. He came, not in any scheme to avoid the con¬ 
sequences of Divine wrath, for the Divine character is 
incapable of wrath, or of any other unloving and unlov¬ 
able quality. And God is one, in essence and in person. 
The Jehovah of the Old Testament is the same person as 
Jesus Christ of the New Testament. 

But, in the two different dispensations, the Israelitish 
and the Christian, two different aspe< 5 ts of the one Divine 
person are made prominent. The Father, Son and Holy 
Spirit are three different phases of the one Divine char¬ 
acter, a trinity of principles, in one person. “Hear, O 
Israel, the Lord, thy God, is one Lord.” And Jesus said, 
“I and the Father are one.” The parable is a beautiful 
illustration of the character, or quality, of the Lord’s 
love. 


SCRIBES AND PHARISEES. 

When the Pharisees and scribes said of Jesus, “This 
man receiveth sinners,” Jesus substantially replied, in 
the parable, “Yes, I do; just as you would, if any of 



412 


Parables of the New Testament. 


your property should be lost. These are My sheep ; and 
I come to seek and save that which was lost.” “I am 
not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” 
“ They that are whole need not a physician, but they that 
are sick.” The self-righteous Pharisees and scribes de¬ 
spised and hated the sinners, and the publicans, or 
gatherers of the Roman tax, some of whom were renegade 
Jews, who, for money, served the Roman conquerors, 
against their own Jewish nation. 

To the self-exalting Pharisee, righteousness seemed to 
require a man to stand apart from all sinners and outcasts, 
and to have no association with such persons. But, to 
the Lord, righteousness was in having intimate association 
with sinners, in order to save them, through repentance. 

But the selfish Pharisees and scribes, inflated with a 
sense of their own importance, could not comprehend the 
Lord’s idea of righteousness. And, to them, the fa6t 
that Jesus associated with sinners was proof that He was 
not the true Messiah. For they expected the Messiah to 
come to them, to raise them into still greater power and 
importance, and thus to separate them, even more fully, 
from all sinners. And so they inferred that this man, who 
made so much of common sinners, and did not exalt the 
Pharisees and scribes, could not be the true Messiah, and 
must be an impostor. 

Thus, they were in total error, as to the whole char¬ 
acter of Jesus Christ. And, in fact, even the Old Testa¬ 
ment would have taught them these truths, if they had 
been in mental conditions to receive such truths. “Have 
I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die ? saith the 
Lord God; and not that he should return from his ways, 
and live?” “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the 
unrighteous man his thoughts : and let him return unto 
the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him, and to our 
God, for He will abundantly pardon. ’ ’ 


The Lost Sheep. 


4i3 


THE SPIRITUAL MEANING. THE SHEPHERD. 

The “man” who has the hundred sheep, represents 
the Lord, who is the Divine Shepherd, the owner of all the 
human race, and of all good and true qualities in all 
human beings. In the Old Testament, Jehovah is called 
the Shepherd. “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not 
want.” And, in the New Testament, we find Jesus claim¬ 
ing for Himself, the Divine title of Shepherd. “I am the 
good Shepherd. . . I and the Father are one.” 

THE SHEEP. 

And, in both the Old and New Testaments, men are 
called the Lord’s sheep. “For He is our God; and we 
are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His 
hand.” And, in the New Testament, “My sheep hear 
My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I 
give unto them eternal life. ’ ’ Abstractly, sheep represent 
charity, or love to the neighbor. In a general sense, the 
sheep of our minds are all our good principles of affec¬ 
tion. 


ONE HUNDRED. 

One hundred, as a round number, and a general num¬ 
ber, represents all. One hundred sheep are all the re¬ 
generate affe&ions of the human mind, all our good qual¬ 
ities. So, one hundred is often used as a standard, in 
numbering, or weighing, or in comparison. We say, 
there is not more than one man in a hundred, who does 
so and so. 


LOSING ONE SHEEP. 

To lose one sheep out of one hundred, is, mentally, to 
lose one of our good qualities, or virtues. This is the 


414 


Parables of the New Testament. 


case, when any good quality in us suffers a decline, loses 
its goodness, and loses its vitality and activity. We lose 
it from our mind and character. Its work, or use, is lost 
to us. For, we lose any good quality as we relapse into 
the evil which is opposite to it. 

INNOCENCE. 

The one sheep, the good quality which is lost from the 
erring mind, is, especially, the principle of innocence. 
Innocence is not merely a negative state, of freedom from 
corruption, as is the outward innocence of a little child, 
which is in the innocence of ignorance. Spiritual innocence 
is the innocence of wisdom. Inward innocence consists 
in looking to the Lord, and in living in the love and 
practice of the Lord’s principles, in the acknowledgment 
that man, of himself, is neither good nor true. Innocence 
is that quality of the will, in which it is open to the Lord, 
and receptive of life from Him. 

This innocence is the central principle in all good 
qualities. It is utterly opposed to all forms of self-love 
and of self-intelligence. This innocence was lost in the 
fall of man. For the fall was a relapse into lower forms 
and phases of mental life; it was, especially, a failure to 
look to the Lord, and a desire, in man, to lead himself, 
rather than to be led by the Lord. And, since the fall, 
the effort of the Lord has always been to restore to man 
his lost innocence ; to lead him back to a child-like state 
of trust in the Lord, looking to the Lord, and not to self. 

If a man, thinking of his good qualities, regards these 
as his own, and separates them from connexion with the 
Lord, these virtues lose their heavenly quality. For they 
draw all their life from the Lord, momentarily, and while 
they are acknowledged and received as His gifts to men. 
Virtues claimed as our own, lose their quality of inno¬ 
cence. 


The Lost Sheep. 


4 i 5 


THE WILDERNESS. 

This innocence is, especially, the sheep that was lost; 
and without which, the ninty-nine sheep, all the other 
virtues, were left in the wilderness, the condition in which 
there was little life. Without innocence, without the lov¬ 
ing acknowledgment of the Lord, every other virtue is 
left in a mental and spiritual wilderness, without the nearer 
presence of the Divine Shepherd ; and hence subject to 
many dangers. Without innocence, every supposed vir¬ 
tue is tainted with self-merit. But the Lord seeks to 
restore to man’s mental fold, this lost sheep of innocence; 
to lead man back to the acknowledgment of his Lord, 
and thus to openness to heavenly life. 

SEEKING THE LOST. 

The Lord, as a Shepherd, is ever watching His sheep, 
noting the mental states of every wandering soul, and 
every wandering feeling and thought in every soul. And 
He goes forth, in His holy Word, and in the ministra¬ 
tions of His holy angels, to seek and save that which was 
lost. 

And, in illustrating this principle of Divine help, the 
sheep is the best beast to make the story plain ; for, when 
lost, separated from the flock, the Oriental sheep, used to 
the shepherd’s daily care, does not wander home, like the 
dog, or horse, but often becomes alarmed, and flies from 
impending dangers, exhausting his strength, until he falls 
down and dies. 

Without the principle of innocence, the most gifted 
mind is left in a spiritual wilderness, with his affeCtions 
and thoughts obscured and bewildered, feeling an inward 
loss which nothing can restore, except a return to an ac¬ 
knowledgment of the Lord, and a life in the Lord. 
Repentance and amendment of life bring the mind back 
into conjunction with the Lord. 


416 Parables of the New Testament. 

When the Lord, as the Divine Shepherd, sees that 
we have lost one of our mental sheep, especially the 
principle of inward innocence, (the love and mental habit 
of looking to the Lord,) He goes forth into our minds, 
seeking to save that which was lost. He sends some 
clear and vigorous truth to our rational attention to recall 
to our minds the great fadl that, without Him, ‘‘we can do 
nothing.” In everyway, and through every rocky path, 
and every dense thicket, He seeks our lost sheep, which 
is, in fad:, His sheep. And, if we are willing and obedi¬ 
ent, He can restore our spiritual sheep, our state of inno¬ 
cence. And, through all our life, our Lord seeks to save 
our lost sheep. He never ceases the search, “until He 
find it,” if we are willing. And we all need this Divine 
assistance, for ‘ ‘ All we, like sheep, have gone astray: we 
have turned every one to his own way.” 

THE SHOULDERS. 

“And when he hath found it, he layeth it upon his 
shoulders, rejoicing.” The shoulders, by which we exert 
our power, or sustain and support what we carry, repre¬ 
sent our power, our energy. So, when we would urge a 
man to exert his powers, we say, “Put your shoulder to 
the wheel, and make it move.” Thus, as relating to the 
Lord, to lay the sheep on the shoulders, indicates that 
the Lord exerts all His Divine power to restore fallen 
men to connexion with Him, as the source of their life. 

And, as it relates to our side of the work, it calls us 
to put forth our whole energy to restore our lost innocence, 
by breaking away from self-dependence, and looking to 
the Lord, as the source of all life ; and thus re-establish¬ 
ing our orderly connexion with the inflowing life of heaven, 
in which the lost sheep of innocence will be restored to 
our mental flock. 

And when we feel, again, the return of our lost inno¬ 
cence, in our full acknowledgment of our Lord, we are, 


The Lost Sheep. 


4i7 


with our whole power, to urge every quality of our mind 
and life to come into full connexion with the heavenly 
quality of spiritual innocence; to acknowledge their de¬ 
pendence upon the Lord. We are to carry out this 
restored principle, with all the energy of our will. We 
are to put it upon our mental shoulders, and carry it to 
our mental home, rejoicing in having found that which 
was lost. 

The present parable especially exhibits the Lord’s 
agency in saving men. The other side of the work, the 
man’s part, is more especially brought out in the third 
parable in the chapter, that of “The Prodigal Son,” who 
arises, and goes to his father. 

REJOICING. 

Everyone rejoices, in finding what he had lost; and 
he rejoices in proportion to the greatness of his former 
loss, and of his sorrow in his loss. Anyone, who has 
made any progress in regenerate life, and has felt the joy 
of uniting with the Lord, in heavenly afle< 5 tions and uses, 
and who has, at any time, become conscious that he 
has been relapsing into worldliness, and losing the high 
quality of spiritual life, feels a sense of terrible loss. In 
his sorrow, he feels alarmed at his condition. He cries 
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right 
spirit within me. . . . Restore unto me the joy of Thy 
salvation, and uphold me with Thy free spirit.” 

And, as he returns to an orderly life, looking to the 
Lord, he feels the inflowing love of the Lord ; and he 
rejoices in his restoration to spiritual life. The joy of 
heaven is communicated to his open mind, as he is led 
back into the state of the innocence of wisdom. O Lord, 
“Let Thy judgments help me; I have gone astray, like 
a lost sheep : seek Thy servant; for I do not forget Thy 
commandments.” And then the Lord makes the truth 
clearer to the repenting mind, as He says, “These things 


4i8 Parables of the New Testament. 

have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in 
you, and that your joy maybe full.” 

The Jews, as a nation, were broken up by the want 
of inward innocence; and they have been, ever since, 
wanderers upon the face of the earth, without a nation¬ 
ality or a home. 

FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS. 

“And when he cometh home, he calleth together his 
friends and his neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice 
with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.” 
The friends and neighbors of our spirititual qualities are 
our good natural qualities, which are also called in to 
rejoice with us; to feel, and respond to, the joy that is 
communicated to our spiritual minds, from the heavens, 
and from our spiritual minds to our natural minds. 

REJOICING OVER REPENTANT SINNERS. 

“I say unto you that, likewise, joy shall be in heaven, 
over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and 
nine just persons, who need no repentance.” This last 
verse has been a stumbling-block to the interpreters. It 
seems to offer a premium for sinning and repenting, rather 
than for an entire life of freedom from sin. But, the 
trouble has been in a misunderstanding of the force and 
meaning of the verse. The text does not say that the 
Lord loves the repentant sinner more than He loves the 
righteous man, nor that He does any more for the sinner: 
it merely says there is more rejoicing over the sinner. 
And it does not say that such rejoicing is done by the 
Lord, but by men. 


ILLUSTRATION. 


And it is clear why there is a sense in which this is 


The Lost Sheep. 


419 


so. If you have a family of children, all of whom are 
healthy and vigorous, except one feeble one, your care is 
demanded for this feeble child, more than for the others; 
and his afflictions draw out your sympathy and your 
affeCtions, more than the others, who do not seem to need 
so much sympathy. And, if some remedy should quickly 
restore the health of your feeble child, there is a sense in 
which you would rejoice more over his restored health 
than over that of the other children, whose health had 
not been in danger, and for whom you had never been 
anxious. 


SPIRITUAL LOSS. 

And, spiritually speaking, our loss of innocence gives 
us great solicitude. And when this lost sheep is found, and 
restored to the fold, we rejoice over it more than over the 
other virtues; because, in fad, this principle of spiritual 
innocence gives tone and charader to all the other good 
qualities. Without it, they are left in the wilderness. 
And, in one sense, the wilderness is a state of temptation, 
in which our good principles are not in full vigor of life. 
Thus, rejoicing in the restoration of our innocence is, 
pradically, a rejoicing in the restoration of the inward 
quality of all our virtues. 

NEED NO REPENTANCE. 

Thus the whole mind of man rejoices in the return of 
the lost sheep of innocence, more than in the virtues 
which appeared to “need no repentance.” These “need 
no repentance,” now, because they have already gone 
through their repentance, in times past. For all need 
repentance, at some time. And the merely external right¬ 
eousness of the Pharisee does not take a man to heaven, 
at all; and so there would not be any rejoicing in heaven, 
over such repentance. 


420 Parables of the New Testament 

For the rejoicing mentioned in the last verse of the 
parable is said to be “ in heaven,” i. e ., among men of 
heavenly chara6ler. We cannot ascribe varieties of feel¬ 
ing to our Lord; He, being infinite, is above all circum¬ 
stances and accidents. And heaven is not merely a place, 
full of men; it is a condition. And it is in men. “The 
kingdom of God is within you.” The joy of heaven is, 
then, interior joy, the joy of our spiritual and regenerate 
affe&ions, which rejoice in the restoration of a state of 
innocence, more than in all other qualities, when these 
are separated from spiritual innocence, which is the in¬ 
ward foundation of all heavenly qualities. 

PERMISSIONS. 

In the practical providence of the Lord, some men 
reach higher states of regenerate life by being permitted 
to fall into sin, and by seeing their own evils, and acquir¬ 
ing an abhorrence of them, than the same men could 
attain in an even life, without appearance of sin : because, 
in the even life, there would be danger of self-righteous¬ 
ness, and also of ignorance of their real tendencies. Some 
minds require actual personal experience, to give them 
an abhorrence of sin. And such men, when they repent 
and reform, may be regenerated to a high degree. 

The Lord permits each man to meet just such things 
as are necessary to his regeneration. The chief question 
is not what we come from, or come through, but what we 
finally come into. But all need repentance, reformation 
and regeneration. And it is best always to shun every 
evil, during all our life; and to do every good that we 
can, in the name of the Lord, acknowledging our depend¬ 
ence upon Him ; and yet doing our part, by keeping His 
commandments. 


The Lost Sheep . 


421 


THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 

The early Christian Church, which was in a more 
childlike state than the First Christian Church of later 
times, loved to dwell, with great delight, upon the image 
of the Lord, as the good Shepherd, bringing home the 
lost sheep. You find this image on many of the early 
Christian relics, gems, seals, pieces of glass, etc., and on 
bas-reliefs on the sarcophagi, or stone coffins, and in 
paintings in the catacombs, or subterranean burial-vaults 
of the early Christians. 

And it is well for men of to-day, to keep in mind the 
boundless and tender love of the Lord. For, as we rise 
to an appreciation of the quality of the Divine Love, we 
become more fully able to prepare our hearts to receive, 
and to live in, such a quality of love. Our Lord is always 
operating, to draw us out of evil, and into goodness. 
Our sins are not laid up against us, in a grand debtor and 
creditor account, in heaven. But sin is like ill-health ; we 
must live ourselves out of it, according to the laws of life. 
And he who lives himself out of past sins, and hates his 
own evils, thereby frees himself from their present influ¬ 
ence ; and the Lords leads him above them. ‘ ‘ The Lord 
is my Shepherd; I shall not want. . . . He restoreth my 
soul.” 


422 


Parables of the New Testament. 


XXXII. 

€fic Jlost ptccc of Niftier. 

(luke xv. 8-10.) 

THE LOSS AND RECOVERY OF TRUTH. 


SUMMARY. 

A negleXed truth is praXically lost to us, until we return 
to an affeXionate practice of it. And, with our renewed re¬ 
cognition and practice of a truth, there comes renewed union 
with the good which the truth teaches, and which is the in¬ 
ward life of the truth. And, as we renew our mental con¬ 
nexion with the truth and the good, we renew our connexion 
with our Lord, who is the Source of all good, all truth, and 
all life. And, in this renewed connexion, we are lifted up, 
mentally, into a state of spiritual rejoicing. 

THE LITERAL STORY. 

The hypocritical scribes and Pharisees, seeing the Lord 
associating with publicans and sinners, sought to destroy His 
influence among the people, by accusing Him of being a 
sinner, also. In their evil charaXer, they could scarcely im¬ 
agine that Jesus could have any heavenly motive for asso¬ 
ciating with social outcasts. 

MISJUDGING. 

Evil men, judging from their own mental conditions, 
rarely understand the motives of good men. Those who 



The Lost Piece of Silver. 


423 


know their own selfish desires and plans, seldom see that 
others are actuated by totally different motives. And so 
men of low moral charadler are always ready to doubt the 
existence of purer motives in other men. 

THE REPLY. 

And the only effective answer to the suspicions and slan¬ 
ders of evil men, is the reply which the Lord, Himself, made 
to these Pharisees and scribes; i. e ., He showed them that it 
is good to seek and to save that which is lost; and that 
His Divine Love was doing all that could be done, to save 
every sinner. The Lord’s association with sinners, was not 
to make Himself like them, but to induce them to become 
like Him. And so, it is the duty, and it should be the joy, 
of every good man, to do all the good that he can do to 
those who need his help. 

CONNECTIONS. 

The two parables, “The Lost Sheep” and “The Lost 
Piece of Silver,” are closely conne<5ted, showing the two 
sides of one phase of our human life. The parable of “The 
Lost Sheep ” relates especially to the condition of the will, 
or heart, in the repentant man; and the parable of “The 
Lost Piece of Silver” relates particularly to the understand¬ 
ing, or intellect, in the same man. Thus, the first parable 
refers to the good that is in the man’s heart and its affe<5iions, 
and the second parable refers to the truth that is in the man’s 
intelle<5l and its thoughts. 

THE WOMAN. SILVER. 

The woman represents the affe<5tional element. Silver 
represents truth, as distinguished from gold, which represents 
good. In the Scriptures, the Church, as to its affe&ion for 
truth, is often represented as a woman, a virgin, or a wife. 


424 Parables of the New Testament. 

Silver represents the things of the spiritual degree of life, the 
degree characterized by truth, as distinguished from the 
celestial degree, which is characterized by good. “Iam the 

Lord, thy Saviour and thy Redeemer.For brass I 

will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver; i. e ., in the 
regeneration, the Lord gives us internal, celestial good, in¬ 
stead of natural good, and spiritual truth instead of hard 
natural truth.. 


SILVER PIECES. TEN. 

The “pieces of silver,” in the parable, were Greek coins, 
drachmae, each drachma being worth about fifteen cents. 
They were small coins, in daily use for common necessities 
of life. There were ten pieces. Ten, as a representative 
number, denotes all. The ten pieces of silver represent all 
the truths necessary for practical life, truths of life from the 
Lord’s Word. To have these ten pieces of silver in posses¬ 
sion of the woman, is to have our affeCtion holding pos¬ 
session of abundance of truths from the Divine Word. 

LOSING ONE PIECE. 

And, when the woman lost one piece of silver, she repre¬ 
sented our affection losing its hold upon one important truth 
of life, by negleCting to practise that truth. For instance: 
suppose we have set our affeCtion upon the truths of the 
New-Church, which we know in abundance ; i. e ., with suf¬ 
ficient fulness for all practical purposes. But, suppose we 
allow ourselves to fall into some evil feelings, or false thoughts, 
or bad habits, by whose influence our mind becomes neglect¬ 
ful of the truth ; and some important truth becomes obscured 
to our mental vision. 


ILLUSTRATION. 


Suppose, for instance, that we lose sight of the grand 
truth that all our knowledge of spiritual truth is from the 



The Lost Piece of Silver . 


425 


Lord, by revelation, and not from any ability in ourselves, to 
discover truth, apart from the Lord’s revelation. In this 
case, we should lose one piece of silver. And, if we were 
making an effort to be regenerated, such a loss would soon 
be discovered and felt; and it would occasion great spiritual 
distress. We would soon realize that, in some way, and in 
some wrong state of feeling or thought, we had lost the act¬ 
ual use of the great truth of the dependence of all things 
upon the Lord. We might theoretically believe this doc¬ 
trine, and yet we might fail to see its practical operation 
upon our own states of life. 

Now, suppose we begin to realize that we have suffered 
some such loss, mentally; that the truth of the Divine Prov¬ 
idence, for instance, is not as clear to us, in practical mat¬ 
ters, as it used to be, and as it.should be; what should we 
do? Like the woman in the parable, we should light a can¬ 
dle, (or lamp,) and search for the missing truth. And, in that 
search, we should sweep our mental house, and work, dili¬ 
gently, until we should find that truth returning to us, in its 
clearness and force. 


THE HOUSE. 

Oriental houses were, intentionally, so constructed as to 
exclude the glaring light and heat, in a hot climate. They 
were low, stone buildings, generally having very few win¬ 
dows, and, often having no opening but the door-way. The 
floor was generally of dry earth. In such a dark house, it 
would be difficult to see any small objeCt, especially on such 
a floor; and so it would be necessary to call in the aid of 
artificial light. 


THE LAMP. 

The “candle,” in the parable, is, literally, a lamp; and it 
is so rendered in the New Version of the New Testament. 
Now, a lamp represents a doCtrine, which, as a hollow ves- 


426 


Parables of the New Testament. 


sel, receives the warm oil of love, from which comes the light 
of intelligence in truth. Mental light is truth. And truth 
is from the Word of the Lord. “ Thy Word is a lamp unto 
my feet, and a light unto my path.” And the man who does 
not look to the Lord, but relapses into evil, loses his mental 
light, or truth. 


SEARCHING. 

The woman, lighting a candle, or lamp, to search for the 
lost piece of silver, is a symbolic figure, representing our 
affedtion for truth, going to the Lord’s Word, carrying the 
dodfrine of the Church, that the Lord’s Word may light up 
the dodtrine, to aid our affedlion in returning to a realization 
of some important truth, which has become obscured to us, 
by our negledt to practise it. 

Take, for instance, the truth of the Lord’s constant provi¬ 
dence, in all details of our daily life. Sometimes, we lose 
sight of this great truth, and it becomes obscured to us. 
We suffer the practical loss of it, until, taking the dodtrine 
of the Church as a lamp, we go to the Lord’s Word, that 
our lamp may be lighted up, so that we can confidently 
carry this dodtrine with us, and search for the missing truth, 
until we recover it. We procure light from the Word of 
the Lord, especially from the commandments of the Deca¬ 
logue. We look to our Lord, for help; and we expedt to 
receive help through the dodtrine of the Church, enlightened 
and confirmed from the Divine Word. 

SWEEPING THE HOUSE. 

But, in order to find the lost coin, the woman not only 
takes a lamp, and lights it, but also sweeps the house, and 
seeks dilligently till she finds the lost silver. The house, in 
which a man lives, represents his will, in which he dwells, in¬ 
wardly. As the ruling-love of his will is, so is the charadler 
of the man. To sweep the house, is to cleanse it, and put it 


The Lost Piece of Silver. 


427 


in order; to sweep up what is out of place in the house, and 
to throw out the rubbish. And so, mentally, to sweep.our 
house, with the aid of the light of our lamp, is to examine 
the condition of our will, or heart, and to gather up what is 
out of place; and to cast out all things that ought not to be 
in our minds. 


SELF-EXAMINATION. 

Mental sweeping involves self-examination, to discover 
what is wrong with us. When we sweep the house, we see 
all there is in the house, good and bad ; and we separate the 
good from the bad, casting out the latter. And when we 
sweep out our hearts, we search through them, to see what 
dust of the sensuous life has settled there, to hide the silver 
truth that we would love to see again, in its clearness. 

In sweeping, we look for the dust and dirt, for the sake 
of getting rid of them ; so, in mental sweeping, we examine 
ourselves, for the sake of seeing, and getting rid of, the sens¬ 
uous dust of life, the mere worldly trifles that often settle 
thickly upon our natural affiedlions. In sweeping out our 
minds, we prepare them for the reception of high and heav¬ 
enly principles; we set them in order, by removing the evils 
which appear in the light of our lamp. We examine our¬ 
selves, and pay particular attention to each of our affedtions, 
and to all our different states of feeling. 

DISCOVERING THE CAUSE. 

In this self-examination, and in the consequent cleansing 
and setting in order of our minds, we find out what is the 
matter with us, and why the lost truth lost its firm hold upon 
our feelings and thoughts; why we did not clearly see the 
truthfulness of the truth ; why we were not practically satis¬ 
fied to trust that truth, in our every-day feelings, thoughts 
and condudi And, seeing this, we cast out the evil that ob¬ 
scured our mental piece of silver. 


428 


Parables of the New Testame?it. 


REJOICING. 

Everyone knows the great satisfaction felt by a careful 
housekeeper, in having her house in a clean and orderly 
condition. And every one who loves the truth knows what 
satisfaction comes to the mind, when his mental house is 
clean, and in good order, with every good and true princi¬ 
ple in its appropriate place, and all the external, sensuous 
dust and dirt of life cast out. In this condition of mind, the 
truth is clear, and we have practical confidence in it. 

THE TEST. 

And, in faCt, if, at any time, we find ourselves losing con¬ 
fidence in any truth, as taught in the doCtrines of the New- 
Church, we may rest assured that there is something the 
matter with our mental house-keeping; that we have lost a 
piece of our mental silver; and that our inward house needs 
to be swept and cleansed, with the aid of the mental lamp of 
doCtrine, lighted from the Word of the Lord. This is the 
practical way to make the truth clear and satisfactory to our 
minds ; i. <?., to cleanse our hearts of their evils, and to sweep 
away the dust of sensuous trifles, which are too apt to settle 
down upon our hearts. “Create, in me, a clean heart, O 
God, and renew a right spirit within me.” 

DILIGENCE. PERSISTENCE. 

Our mental seeking is the aCtion of our understanding. 
But the parable declares that the woman will seek “dili¬ 
gently,” and seek “till she finds” the lost piece of silver. 
Diligence is communicated to our intelleClual search, accord¬ 
ing to the real interest felt in the matter, by our will. If we 
are in real earnest, from the heart, we do not seek in a half¬ 
hearted way; nor do we soon become discouraged; but we 
seek diligently; and we seek till we find. 

So we are told, “ Ask, and it shall be given you; seek. 


The Lost Piece of Silver. 429 

and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.” 
We ask with our heart; we seek with our understanding; 
and we knock when we put forth an effort, when we carry 
out our feeling and thought, in the pra<5fical activity of con¬ 
duct. What we love, we are in earnest about. We intend to 
succeed. The truth comes back to us, and we find it, when 
we feel the loss of it, and when we intend to return to a clear 
perception of it. Truth remains with him who keeps him¬ 
self in condition to retain it, by the daily use of it. Truth, 
in the mind and life, is like muscle in the body, the regular, 
daily use of it develops and increases it. 

TRUTH PERCEIVED. 

The perception of a truth, as a pra&ical principle, is not 
given arbitrarily, as a reward for piety; it is the result of 
a state of mental preparation. Spiritual life comes to him 
who earnestly seeks it; who makes it the principal obje< 5 t of 
his activity. And when he attains spirituality of mind, all the 
outward things of life take their proper places, as servants, 
and not masters. “Seek ye, first, the kingdom of God, and 
His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto 
you.” 

TRUTH OBSCURED. 

Every truth that we cease to pradfise becomes obscure to 
us. And, if we see that a truth has lost its hold upon us, we 
may know that we have not earnestly practised that truth, 
in our daily life. We have not had full confidence in it. 
We have allowed some dust of the earth to hide its clear¬ 
ness, and to reduce its force, in our lives. For instance: 
once, we felt sure of the Divine Providence; and now we 
are not sure of it. And why? Simply because we have not 
trusted the Divine Providence, but have tried to have our 
own way. We need to light our lamp, and sweep our house, 
and seek diligently, till we recover our lost truth. We need 


430 


Parables of the New Testament. 


to shake off the dust of the senses, and to elevate our mind 
more fully into the higher atmosphere of spiritual things. 

In fa< 51 , there is such a continued drawing towards the 
dust, (situated as we are, amid sensuous things,) that we 
need to keep ourselves in the habit of elevating our minds, 
whenever we fix our affections, our thoughts, and our con- 
du6t; thus thinking of things from their inward side, and 
judging righteous judgment, and not judging by sensuous 
appearances. We need to make spiritual principles familiar 
to our every-day thought, and to keep them so. But the 
spirituality of truth is lost to us, whenever we fall into any 
corruption of our affe< 5 tion, our thought, or our conduCt. 

GOOD AND TRUTH. 

In the last parable, the shepherd is a man; but the 
owner of the silver is a woman; and it is so, because, inte¬ 
riorly, the chara6leristic love of the man is the love of good, 
and that of the woman is the love of truth. There are vari¬ 
ous representative meanings of the terms, man, husband, 
etc., and woman, wife, virgin, widow, etc., according to the 
subjeCt treated of, and the discrete degree of life illustrated. 
But, interiorly, the man is a form of love, and exteriorly he 
is a form of wisdom ; while the woman is, interiorly, a form 
of wisdom, and exteriorly a form of love. And as, in this 
world, we live in our exteriors, men are here characterized 
by the intellectual life of wisdom, or truth, and women by 
the afifeCtional life of love, or good. 

But we notice that a man is attracted to a woman, not 
on account of her intelligence, but on account of her good¬ 
ness, her love. And a woman is drawn to a man on ac¬ 
count of his intelligence, rather than because of his good¬ 
ness. And, in this, we see the interiors of each drawn to¬ 
wards things that are like them, while the exteriors are 
drawn to the things that are different. 


The Lost Piece of Silver. 


43 i 


FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS. 

The friends and neighbors of our spiritual qualities, are 
our good natural qualities, which are also called in to rejoice 
with us; to feel, and respond to, the joy that is communi¬ 
cated to our spiritual minds, from the heavens, and from our 
spiritual minds to our natural minds. And even the angels 
rejoice with us, in the restoration of any good or true prin¬ 
ciple to our minds and lives, after it has been lost, and found 
again. Every repentant emotion of our hearts, finds a re¬ 
sponse in the angels in the heavens. 

ANGELS REJOICING. 

And if our emotion originates in the determination of 
our will, to gain, again, the lost good, or the lost truth, (the 
sheep or the piece of silver,) not only shall our own minds 
be made happy in renewed life, spiritually and naturally, but 
also, in renewing our orderly connection with the heavens, 
we shall cause the angels to renew their rejoicings over the 
goodness of the Lord, and “ His wonderful works to the 
children of men.” 

Thus, every good affeCtion, sincerely cherished, and in¬ 
telligently understood, and diligently practised, will go down 
the ages, as a blessing to all, a “thing of beauty [that] is a 
joy forever.” And, on the other hand, the loss of every 
good principle, and every truth, lost from our practical daily 
life, diminishes the joy of the created universe. In the light 
of these faCts we cannot afford to lose any heavenly principle 
from our minds and lives, by negleCting to praCtise it, and by 
sinking ourselves below the high level of its operation, and 
nearer to the deadly emanations of the hells. 


432 


Pur/uw* vj the New 1 estament. 


XXXIII. 

€t)e ^ro&igal 4>ou. 

(luke xv. n-32.) 

THE SINNER'S RETURN TO THE LORD. 


SUMMARY. 

The abuse of knowledge, to favor selfish purposes, 
plunges the man into distress. But, when he recognizes the 
cause of his distress, and, in acknowledgment of the Lord, 
returns to the love and practice of the truth, all the Di¬ 
vine influences are exerted to restore him to an orderly- 
condition. He who breaks away from the restraints of truth 
and order, finds, after all, that he has but exchanged a kind 
master for a cruel one; that, in departing from the guidance 
of the Lord, he has become a wretched slave to his own 
lusts, and to the hells. And he learns, also, that the laws of 
heavenly life, the very influences which he sought to escape, 
he must finally depend upon, to rescue him from his self- 
inflidted misery. On the other hand, a natural-minded man, 
though externally in order, cannot appreciate the quality of 
the Divine Love, nor the experiences of the spiritual-minded 
man. And yet the repentant sinner, when spiritual-minded, 
rises to a higher or more interior quality of spiritual life than 
the moral, but natural-minded, man can attain. 

THE CONNECTION. 

In the text and context there are three parables. All 
these parables exhibit the Lord’s love to men, and His con- 



The Prodigal Son. 


433 


stant effort to save men from evil and sin. The parable of 
“ The Lost Sheep ” treats of the loss of some good affeCtion, 
and the distress felt until that affection is found, again, and 
returned to our mental flock. The parable of “ The Lost 
Piece of Silver” treats of the loss of some important truth, 
by our negleCt to practise it. And the present parable dis¬ 
plays, especially, the repentant sinner’s effort to return to the 
Lord, as well as the Lord’s prompt co-operation. And, as 
the sinner’s desire to return to the Lord is prompted by the 
Lord, Himself, so, in all three of the parables we have but 
different phases of the Divine activity in blessing men. 

THE MAN. THE TWO SONS. 

The “certain man” is the Divine Man, the Lord, Him¬ 
self. And the “two sons” are two classes of men, in the 
Church. The Church is formed by means of truths. But 
there are two classes of men who are in the knowledge of 
truth; first, those who are in the external knowledge of truth, 
and who are external members of the Church, natural- 
minded, yet in the effort to govern their conduct by the 
doCtrines of the Church ; and secondly, those who are in the 
interior understanding of truth, and who are interior mem¬ 
bers of the Church, or who are becoming such. 

The first class, or external members, are apt to live a 
good moral life, and yet without the higher, or more inter¬ 
ior, phases of a spiritual life. In the second class, some are 
impulsive, and are liable to wander away into sins of life, 
from which they can return only by repentance and reform¬ 
ation. Some men are markedly intellectual, rather than 
affeCtional; in others, the will predominates, and they are 
more affeCtional than intellectual. Others are finely balanced, 
the will and the understanding being of equal prominence. 
These are the most perfeCt characters. 

The good, moral men, who are yet external men, are the 
elder brother of the parable; and the sinning and repenting 
men, finally reaching a higher condition, are the younger 


434 


Parables of the New Testament. 


brother; not that a certain amount of sinning is necessary 
to the attainment of a higher spiritual state ; far from it. A 
man can, if he will, resist his tendencies to sin, without allow¬ 
ing them to break out into aCtual sins of life. And the less 
he sins, the better it is for him. 

THE OCCASION. 

But the parable was spoken in answer to the Pharisees, 
to show that a man may live a correCf life, outwardly, and 
yet, inwardly, harbor uncharitable and evil feelings; while 
another man may plunge into evils, and yet finally repent 
and reform, and be regenerated. This latter condition is 
more apt to be the case with the emotional man. 

The younger son felt the restraint of his father’s house, 
and longed for what he supposed would be greater freedom. 
And, desiring the means of gratifying his love of pleasure, 
he asked from his father a division of the property. 

THE LIVING. 

Spiritually, a man’s living, or means of living, is his sup¬ 
ply of knowledges, knowledges of good and truth, which 
teach him how to live. These are mental riches. And, 
without these a man is poor, indeed. These riches are all 
the do6lrines and teachings of the Lord’s Word, and of the 
Church, by the pra6lical application of which the man spir¬ 
itually lives. 


THE YOUNGER SON’S REQUEST. 

When the son was not willing to live in his father’s 
house, but wished to take his share of the property, and go 
away with it, he represented the mental condition in which 
a man desires to claim the knowledges of good and truth as 
his own, and to separate them from any connection with the 
Lord, or any acknowledgment of his dependence upon the 
Lord, for them. 


The Prodigal Son. 


435 


This is the man who thinks himself sufficiently intelligent 
to discover truth and good, without any help from the 
Lord, and who feels that it is beneath his dignity to have to 
go to the Lord for truth to be revealed to him. So he sep¬ 
arates his knowledges from any connexion with the Lord, 
and regards them as his own. This state is in direct opposi¬ 
tion to the state indicated by the man who sincerely prays, 
“ Give us, this day, our daily bread,” and who thus acknowl¬ 
edges his daily dependence upon the Lord’s providence. 

DIVIDING THE LIVING. 

The father divided his living, giving the younger son his 
share; i. e., the man, seeking to separate himself from the 
Lord’s laws of life, and seeking his own way, feels that he has 
become his own master. For when a man will not receive a 
truth as the Lord’s truth, he must be permitted to regard it 
as his own. Thus he can be led to have some acknowledg¬ 
ment of the truth, as a doctrine. And, finally, by discipline, 
he may be led to see his folly, and to repent, and to ac¬ 
knowledge the Lord. When a man thinks he can lead 
himself, he must be allowed to try, until, by failure, he is 
convinced of his error. And then he may be willing to be 
led and taught by the Lord. Only thus can he be taught 
that the freedom to do evil is infernal freedom, which is 
slavery to sin, while the only true freedom is the liberty to 
keep the Lord’s commandments. 

LEAVING HIS FATHER. 

“Not many days after, the younger son gathered all [his 
property] together, and took his journey into a far country 
i. e., when the man began to imagine all knowledges to be 
his own, it required not many days, not many changes of 
state, to carry him far away from his former condition of 
dependence upon the Lord’s truth. He soon descended to 
a low and sensuous state of mind. 


436 Parables of the New Testament 

The son was not driven away from home, but he was 
uneasy in his father’s home. He was full of selfish desires. 
He did not think anything about any duty to his father, in 
return for what his father had done for him, through years 
of childhood. He was self-centred, and lusting for his own 
way, in seeing the world. The life of the world is the “far 
country,” a state of mind which, when merely sensuous and 
disorderly, is far removed from the the home of the human 
soul, in the Father’s house of “many mansions.” 

RIOTOUS LIVING. 

Then the youth, bent upon sensuous pleasures, “wasted 
his substance in riotous living,” that is, in dissipation; put¬ 
ting his heavenly Father, and his spiritual home, far from his 
thoughts. Thus the pleasure-seeker attempts to drive away 
the thoughts that arise to warn him of his folly. He abused 
his mental riches, his knowledges, by immersing them in 
sensuous lusts and disorderly pleasures, until the substance 
of them was gone. 


THE FAMINE. 

And no wonder that “ when he had spent all, there arose 
a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want.” 
When truth is separated from the Lord as its Source and 
Life, its vitality is lost, and it ceases to sustain the human 
soul. The sensuous dissipation does not give the pleasure 
that was expedled from it. And the mind soon loses even 
such enjoyment. There is, indeed, “ a mighty famine in that 
land,” in that state of mind and life. Man is made for spir¬ 
itual life; and nothing less than spirituality of life can per¬ 
manently sustain his spirit. In the sensuous life of the 
disorderly world, there is always a spiritual famine. “ Man 
doth not live by bread, alone, but by every word that pro- 
ceedeth out of the mouth of God.” “ O Lord, by these things 
men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit; so 
wilt Thou recover me, and make me to live.” 


The Prodigal So?i. 


437 


Seen in the light of spiritual truth, there is no more 
pitiable obje<T than an intellectual man who has forgotten 
the Lord, and who is trying to be intelligent from himself; 
and who, in spite of his self-conceit, is utterly ignorant of the 
primary principles of genuine human life. The sinner be¬ 
gins, by making the world his servant, but he soon ends by 
becoming the slave of the world. And, finally, when he has 
spent all; when the world has drawn from him all his sub¬ 
stance ; it casts him out, as the pitiless ocean soon casts out, 
upon its desolate shore, the dead body of him whose life it 
first destroys. 


ENGAGING TO FEED SWINE. 

But, even when in want, the youth would not return to 
his father. “Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have 
life.” Such a man misunderstands the heavenly Father, and 
will not return to Him. So he descends still further into 
external states, seeking some false principle, some “citizen” 
of a “far country,” who can give him support. And this 
“citizen” sends “him into the fields to feed swine,” that 
meanest of occupations in Oriental lands, and especially to 
the Jew, to whom the hog was unclean. In fad, even among 
the Egyptians, swineherds were the only persons forbidden 
to enter the temple. 

Swine represent the filthy lusts of the sensuous mind, the 
low, greedy, selfish passions of grovelling men. And feed¬ 
ing swine, mentally, is cultivating such grovelling passions. 
Spiritually, every man joins himself to a citizen of a far 
country, and goes to feeding swine, when he adopts a false 
principle, and descends into the low excesses of worldly life, 
far removed from the spiritual state which is the home of the 
human soul; and when he there indulges his grovelling pas¬ 
sions, feeding his mental swine, instead of his mental sheep. 
It is seen that swine must be filthy, from the fa<5t that, when 
Jesus cast out some devils, they asked to be allowed to enter 
into the swine. And the citizen who sent the youth to this 


438 


Parables of the New Testament. 


work, is the false principle to which he joined himself, in the 
pursuit of pleasure; the false view of life and its purposes. 
And, spiritually, sooner or later, every man who departs 
from the Lord, will come to feeding swine. 

HUSKS. 

But, even with the swine, the youth hungered, and he 
would have eaten the husks, along with the swine. These 
husks were the pods of the carob tree, resembling our locust 
beans. They were used as food for swine, and, in an emer¬ 
gency, for food for the poor. Husks, or shells, represent the 
externals, the mere outside of things, which cannot sustain 
the life of the human soul. “No man gave” these husks 
to the miserable son; i. e., they could not supply food to 
any manly principle of his mind. 

Now, the youth has made his experiment, and has come 
to sorrow. And now is the time for the Divine influence to 
reach him, and to arouse whatever “remains,” or states of 
good and truth, are still stored up in his inward mind. In 
the Divine Mercy, the youth’s better nature was aroused to 
repentance. 

CAME TO HIMSELF. 

“And when he came to himself,” etc. For, meanwhile, 
he had been beside himself, spiritually insane in his folly. 
A man is himself when he is rational; but he is insane when 
he throws away rational thought, and plunges into sensuous 
pleasures. And he comes to himself, when reason returns. 
He comes to himself, when he comes back to an acknowl¬ 
edgment of his heavenly Father. For, separated from the 
Lord, the man is as nothing. “Without Me, ye can do 
nothing.” But when the man comes to himself, his humili¬ 
ation and sorrow will be great, in proportion to the depth of 
his fall, and his capacity for better things. 


The Prodigal Son. 


439 


THE SERVANTS. 

And then he refle<5ts that his father’s servants have 
enough, while he, the erring son, is perishing with hunger. 
The hired servants are natural truths, which, in connexion 
with the Lord, lead a man to a good life, and, hence, to 
happiness. In the Lord’s service, there is spiritual food in 
plenty, for every ma;i, each according to his capacity. 
“ Happy is the people whose God is the Lord.” And well 
is it, for every man who, even amid the swine of the world’s 
sensuous life, awakes to a recognition of the fa<5t that he is 
spiritually perishing with hunger, and that, in his heavenly 
Father’s house, there is spiritual food for all. The youth 
could have known this, before he left home, if he would. 
“ Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength, but 
trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened him¬ 
self in his wickedness.” 


HUNGER. 

But now he knows, to a certainty, that the human soul 
longs for food which the world cannot supply. He has 
found that he who is not willing to remain a son, led by the 
Divine Father, will finally become a slave to the devil; that 
he who was not satisfied with the bread of angels, sinks 
lower and lower, until he longs in vain, even for the food of 
swine. He who is determined to see the world, without the 
guidance of the Lord, is sure to see the evil and painful side 
of the world, and to plunge into that evil, until he finds him¬ 
self perishing with spiritual hunger, even though there may 
be an abundance of husks about him. 

The son thought he knew all about what the world could 
give him, of real enjoyment; and so his father could but 
allow him to learn a lesson from bitter experience. “Ex¬ 
perience keeps a hard school, but fools will learn in no 
other.” But, if there be any spirituality within a man, he 
cannot long cover it up with the dust of the senses; he can- 


440 Parables of the New Testament . 

not satisfy its nobler longings with the husks that are food 
for swine. In the midst of his grovelling life, miscalled pleas¬ 
ures, his immortal soul will go unfed, perishing with spiritual 
hunger. Even though the man is trying to warm himself 
with the fires of hell, his inward manhood will be shivering 
in a coldness that nothing of the senses can warm. 

THE DIVINE LEADING. 

And, even in his self-infli<Ted misery, the Lord’s love 
still follows him, and arouses in him, if possible, some latent 
truth in his memory, or some childlike affe<5lion still remain¬ 
ing in his heart, and thus develops within him the beginning 
of a nobler hunger, which the lusts of the flesh cannot sat¬ 
isfy. Thus the Divine Love operates: it does jnot attempt 
to drive the swinish man away from the husks; but, when¬ 
ever possible, it creates and arouses within the man, a higher 
aspiration and a nobler hunger; and, when these begin to 
operate, the man begins to loathe the swine and their food ; 
and, in his own free-will, he gladly leaves the swine; saying, 
in humble repentance, “I will arise, and go to my Father.” 

Thus, the wretched man, like the sensuous Israelites, is 
finally led, by a long and devious path of wandering, to at¬ 
tain the blessed home which, at first, he might have secured 
with far less trouble. 

How hard it is, to convince the natural-minded man, es¬ 
pecially in his youthful days, that there are profounder things 
in human life than he has ever experienced; that the true 
life of manhood is in spirituality of character, and not in sens¬ 
uousness ; and that there is wisdom in the advice of those 
whose experience and observation have given them a clear 
understanding of the nature and purpose of human life ; and 
that he who forsakes an orderly state of mind and life, to 
plunge into sensuous excesses, is spiritually insane, in his 
miserable folly. 


The Prodigal Son. 


441 


INSANITY. 

And, indeed, how much of the mental insanity that fills 
our asylums, is the direct result of irregularity and excess 
in the indulgence of all the selfish passions. And how much 
of this sum of insanity could be avoided, especially in early 
life, by simplicity, integrity and cleanness of character, 
united with a calm spirit of contentment, and of trust in the 
Lord. 

We cannot tell just what our interior mental states may 
be, but we can tell what our moral and natural conditions 
are. Over these we have control. And if we keep these in 
good order, governed by the Lord’s commandments, loving, 
thinking and acting upon good principle, we shall thus build 
up a base to support all the elements of a good spiritual char- 
after, which our Lord can develop within us, as we prepare 
ourselves for it, by doing our part, keeping the command¬ 
ments, and humbly performing our uses, happy in doing 
good. 


HUMILITY. 

This parable clearly teaches us that the spirit of humility 
and of innocence, which is so distasteful to the man in his 
selfish prosperity, and which he will do so much to escape, 
he must finally come to, and even in a more painful way, be¬ 
fore he can gain any enduring good. The sins that we hate 
to confess, still cling to us, and take us away to a far coun¬ 
try, and put us to feeding swine. But the sins that we sin¬ 
cerely and unreservedly confess, and cease to do, fall from 
us, as we journey away from them, towards our Father’s 
home. 

It is always so, in our regenerating experiences, that the 
very things which our infernal pride urges us not to do, even 
when we know we should do them, are the very things that, 
finally, we have to do, in even more humiliating circumstan¬ 
ces than if we had done them before. It was so with the Is- 


442 Parables of the New Testament 

raelites, in their representative journey; those who were un¬ 
willing to fight their way through to the promised land, died 
in the wilderness. So, in our regeneration, all our old gen¬ 
eration of rebellious, selfish affe<5tions and false thoughts, 
must die in the wilderness of temptation, before we can enter 
the promised land, the regenerate state. 

Spirituality of life begins in the sincere acknowledgment 
of our Lord, and in the desire to be led and taught by Him. 
Devils are unwilling to be led by the Lord; but the higher 
the angel, the more he loves to be led by the Lord. And 
hence, while the devils are all in slavery, the angels are all in 
freedom. “There is no peace . . to the wicked.” The hu¬ 
man soul has but one home, and one Father; and, separated 
from them, it can have no real or enduring joy. And, as 
long as it dwells in this stage of life, the mercy of God will 
not let the soul rest in infernal evils, nor in worldly follies, 
without a constant reminder of its destiny and its capaci¬ 
ties. 


ARISING, ETC. 

“I will arise, and go to my father.” Spiritually con¬ 
sidered, the parable treats of a mental arising, an elevation of 
the mind and life to higher purposes and plans. When a 
man sees that he has been wasting his spiritual substance in 
disorderly living, he needs resolutely to determine to lift him¬ 
self up, to arise, to a higher and better career. Every truth 
that he knows then calls to him, as Jesus did to His disciples, 
“Arise, let us go hence;” let us arise, out of all these low 
and debasing ways of feeling, thinking and a&ing, which can 
never satisfy an immortal soul. Then the sinner sees his 
only hope is in the Lord; and he says, I will go unto my 
Father; I will confess my sin, and acknowledge my unworth¬ 
iness of the Divine mercies. I will look to the Divine Love 
to give me renewed life. 


The Prodigal Son. 


443 


AS A HIRED SERVANT. 

The penitent sinner is humble: he does not claim to be 
reinstated in his father’s house as his son and heir. He 
says, “I am no more worthy to be called thy son; make me 
as one of thy hired servants.” The grown son is in freedom, 
but the servant is under command of the master. The sin¬ 
ner realizes that, in his tendency to sin, he is not in the free¬ 
dom of one who loves the truth and lives in it; but that he is 
as a hired servant, a natural-minded man, in the knowledge 
of natural truth, and under the compulsion of obedience to a 
law which his lower nature opposes. He seeks a humble 
place, to serve under his Father’s commands, recognizing 
the fa<5f that he is not fit to control himself in spiritual free¬ 
dom. His confession is full and unconditional: he makes 
no attempt to excuse himself, or to lay the censure upon 
others. And this is evidence of his sincerity. Insincere 
persons seek to shield their self-love by excuses. But the 
sincere penitent recognizes the evil and the sin to be his 
own; and, fairly and freely, he makes full confession of his 
guilt. 


SIN AGAINST THE LORD. 

And he recognizes that, though we may wrong men, the 
sin is against the Lord, who, alone, is good. “Father, I 
have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight.” And, spirit¬ 
ually, as applied to the Lord, these words imply that the sin 
is against the Divine Love, and is seen by the Divine Wis¬ 
dom, and forbidden by the Divine Law. So, in his grievous 
wrong-doing, David sang, “I acknowledge my transgres¬ 
sions ; and my sin is ever before me. Against Thee, Thee 
only, have I sinned, and done evil in Thy sight.” He who 
is not willing to humble himself before the Lord, cannot at¬ 
tain any real goodness, because his self-love still controls 
him, and keeps him in evil. But humility casts down the 
self-love, and opens the mind to heaven. He goes to the 
Father. 


444 


Parables of the New Testament. 


THE FATHER MEETING THE SON. 

And then, even when the man is “a great way off,” far 
removed from a heavenly condition, but merely making an 
effort to reach that condition, the Father hastens to meet 
him, and receives him with affection. That the “father saw 
him,” means, spiritually, that the man then recognizes the 
fa6t that the Lord is observing him. This is the action of 
the Divine Providence upon the man’s understanding. And 
that the “father had compassion,” is the action of the Lord’s 
love upon the man’s will, showing him that the Lord loves 
him. That the father “ran” to meet his son, denotes the 
Lord’s adfion upon the man’s life, or conduct, showing him 
how the Divine Father meets him in every a<5t of man’s love, 
done according to the Lord’s commandments. As the man 
returns to the Lord, it seems to him that the Lord is coming 
to him. But, in fadt, the Lord is always with every man, 
and as near as the man’s condition will enable the Lord to 
come. 

The father’s “ kiss ” is a symbol of the union, or conjunc¬ 
tion, of those who love each other. It is also a token of re¬ 
conciliation. Thus, though the penitent acknowledges his 
evil, and considers himself as a servant, only, merely able to 
keep the truth externally, yet, in the new life that he receives 
from the Lord, he is enabled to keep the truth spiritually, 
also, in the freedom of love. 

THE SERVANTS. THE BEST ROBE; ETC. 

The father “said to his servants,” etc.; i. e., the Divine 
Love communicates its purposes and plans, by means of 
pradfical truths, precepts of life, from the Divine Word, 
which serve the Lord. Thus, the good comes to the peni¬ 
tent through the Divine Word, as a means of regenerating 
men. 

“The best robe,” or chief robe, is the knowledge of 
primary and essential truths, which are given to the penitent 


The Prodigal Son . 


445 


man, that he may be clothed with necessary principles of in¬ 
terior and exterior life. Thus, in returning to the Lord, the 
first thing is to renew our knowledge of what the Lord is, 
and how He helps us. 

THE RING. THE SHOES. 

To put a “ring” on the penitent’s hand, is to give him a 
pledge and confirmation of love and assistance. Rings were 
used to confirm and attest certain things. Seal rings were 
used to attest the hand of the party, and to confirm an agree¬ 
ment. A king, sending a messenger, in haste, sent, with the 
messenger, the royal ring, to attest and confirm the authority 
of the message. So, in marriage, rings are used to witness, 
confirm and bind the agreement. 

Shoes, for the feet, were signs of freedom, as slaves went 
with bare feet. Shoes represent the do6trines of practical life, 
for the goverment of the daily conduft, in outward things. 
Therefore, to receive the son in his home, again, and to 
clothe him, etc., denotes to receive him as a free and rational 
man; and to give him spiritual and natural truths, for the 
government of his condu<5t, inwardly and outwardly ; and to 
attest and confirm, to him, all these truths, in the bonds of 
love. 


THE FATTED CALF. 

“ And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us 
eat and be merry,” etc. It was common for every well-to- 
do family to keep on hand a fattening calf, ready for any oc¬ 
casion of rejoicing. The word here used for killing means 
for a sacrifice. And sacrifice means to make holy. And a 
season of rejoicing at any joyous event, represents spiritual 
rejoicing, at any change of state, by which greater fulness of 
spiritual life is received. 

Fat, from its oil, represents the warm, smooth love of 
good. And the calf, as a new generation from the cattle, or 


44-6 


Parables of the New Testament. 


natural affeCtions, represents a spiritual affe6fion, which is a 
new spiritual generation, developed by means of good nat¬ 
ural affe6tions. 

To prepare the fatted calf for a feast, denotes, then, to 
prepare our minds to come into new states of rejoicing in the 
better affeCtions which the Lord communicates to us, when 
we go to Him fully and sincerely. These affections are, at 
first, natural good affeCHons, in which there are the germs of 
spiritual and celestial affe6tions; for all good natural affec¬ 
tions are inwardly filled with things spiritual and celestial. 
Eating together, and being merry and glad, represent the 
joyous consociation of men who are in similiar qualities of 
heavenly life, and who are conjoined to the Lord; or the 
consociation of such qualities in the mind. 

Thus the penitent man, according to his sincerity, comes 
into participation in the delights of love to the Lord, and of 
love to the neighbor. And his eating with the household, 
at the feast, represents his appropriation of heavenly joys to 
his own heart, understanding and life. Thus, a return to the 
Lord, as its Divine Father, brings the penitent soul into 
blessed union with the Lord, and with all who love the 
Lord. 


DEAD, AND RESTORED. 

The prodigal’s father asserted, as the occasion of rejoic¬ 
ing, “For this, my son, was dead, and is alive again ; he was 
lost, and is found.” The sinner is dead to all that is good, 
true and joyous. He is dead to his spiritual home, and to 
his heavenly Father; dead to reason, and to angelic associ¬ 
ations ; dead, not only to his family, but also to the whole 
heavens; spiritually dead, in evils and sins; alienated from 
the Lord, who is the only Source of life. But, in repentance, 
reformation and regeneration, he returns to spiritual life. 
He was lost, wandering in sin, without the guidance of heav¬ 
enly truth. But, in regeneration, he is found, because he re¬ 
turns to the Lord. 


The Prodigal Son. 


447 


MAKING MERRY. 

“And they began to be merry;” i. e. y what was in 
their affeCtions and thoughts, was carried out in their 
joyous condu<5t, as good news induces men to gladsome 
merriment; and a fulness of inward joy moves men to 
corresponding joyousness of bodily motion. 

HOPE. 

The parable assures us that, even if we have sinned, 
we need not despair; for, though, of ourselves, we are 
utterly powerless to return to a heavenly condition, yet 
the infinite, boundless and tender love of our heavenly 
Father is always bending over us, seeking to save that 
which is lost, and giving immediate and adequate rescue 
and aid to every honest endeavor for a higher and better 
life. 


RESULTS. 

In the parable, the father is merciful and generous. 
But the son’s own condition has much to do with the 
father’s conduct. The son’s humble repentance brought 
out the father’s love. But, if the son had returned to his 
father’s house, in an arrogant and insolent state of mind, 
he would have had a very different reception. Suppose 
he had pompously strutted into the house, and had said, 
Well, here I am again. I have spent all you gave me; 
and now I want more. I am tired and hungry. Hasten, 
and get me the best you have in the house, to eat and to 
drink ; and give me the best clothes you have. Kill your 
fatted calf, and make a grand feast for me. And be 
quick about it. 

Suppose he had thus returned, what would the indig¬ 
nant father have done? Probably he would have sub¬ 
jected the youth to some wholesome discipline. But the 


448 Parables of the New Testament. 

changed condition of the young man proved him worthy 
of the loving father’s aid. And so, if the sinner should 
demand to be taken into heaven, in his evil condition, he 
would, by his own doings, close, in himself, the ability to 
receive the things of heavenly life. For heaven is not 
merely a place; it is a condition of mind and of life. 

THE PRODIGAL. 

In the literal sense, the son’s repentance seems to be¬ 
gin in hunger and want; but, we remember that these 
things are representative of spiritual hunger and thirst 
after righteousness. The prodigal son is not one who 
merely wastes his money and health in physical dissipa¬ 
tion ; but spiritually, the prodigal is one who is in the 
Church, having the knowledges of good and truth, as the 
means of acquiring spiritual life, but who falls into falsity 
and into evil life, and does not obey the known truth. 

ILLUSTRATION. 

This pi<5ture of the prodigal is no fancy sketch; it is 
a faithful portrait of men and women who know the truth, 
and yet indulge their selfish passions. Visit an asylum 
for the insane, and see some poor wretch, in rags, hollow- 
eyed, imagining himself a king, and his keepers but his 
slaves. How can he think thus? He is insane. But he 
is not one whit more insane than the young man who 
goes out from his earthly father’s house, imagininghe can 
find greater freedom and happiness in the indulgence of 
his lower nature in the excesses of the world. And he is 
not more insane than the man who seeks to be free from 
the restraints of the Divine Law, in his heavenly Father’s 
house, and who plunges into selfish life, looking for hap¬ 
piness. 

Sooner or latter, he will find himself in spiritual slav¬ 
ery to his lusts, and in companionship with devils. And 


The Prodigal Son. 


449 


blessed shall he be, if, ere it is too late, he shall awake 
to a recognition of his folly; and shall go to his Father, 
in humility, repentance and reformation; like the poor 
maniac among the tombs, sitting at the feet of Jesus, 
“clothed, and in his right mind.” 

STAGES OF PROGRESS. 

The prodigal son passed through six stages of pro¬ 
gress, and into the seventh : first, a state of self-will; 
second, a<5ts of folly; third, misery; fourth, reflexion; 
fifth, repentance; sixth, reformation; seventh, peace. 
These are his six days of the new creation, followed by 
the seventh state, as a Sabbath of spiritual rest in the 
Lord. 


THE LORD’S LOVE. 

This parable has given occasion to scoffers, to declare 
that, when a man has seen all he can of the world, and 
has exhausted himself, or has become disappointed with 
the world, his last resource is to turn to be a saint. 

Well, even if it be so, is it not evidence of the bound¬ 
less mercy of the Lord, that He can make a saint of such 
a man? In fa6t, how else can the worldly man be turned 
from his worldliness, than by allowing him to discover, 
by experience, how utterly the world fails to satisfy the 
longings of a human soul. A reformed worldling is far 
better than his scoffing critics, who, beneath their even 
exteriors, hide a cold, pitiless selfishness, which never 
rises to the high level of Christian charity. 

It is one of the stumbling-blocks to natural-minded 
men, who, like children, think of outward rewards and 
punishments, that the Lord’s blessings do not always fall 
upon a man according to his past career. But it is ne¬ 
cessary to remember that the effort of the Divine Love is 
not to punish men for past a<5Is, but to save men from 


450 Parables of the New Testament. 

their own folly, and to lift them out of evils. The Lord 
is not a great dete&ive-officer, but a great Physician. 
“God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the 
world, but that the world, through Him, might be saved.’* 
He “came to seek, and to save, that which was lost.” 

ALL SIN DANGEROUS. 

But let no man imagine that a career of sin will help 
him to become regenerate. All sin is dangerous and de¬ 
structive. And, even where repentance follows a bad 
career, the greater the departure from goodness, the 
harder and longer will be the work of returning to the 
Lord. “Trust in the Lord, and do good: so shalt thou 
dwell in the land; and verily, thou shalt be fed.” 

THE lord’s WORK. 

As Jesus walked in Judea, teaching the laws of spir¬ 
itual and natural life, and illustrating these laws in Plis 
own heavenly conduCt; healing the sick, the lame, the 
maimed, and the blind ; casting out demons ; and raising 
the dead; so, in all His ways, the Lord is, to-day, doing 
all these heavenly works, spiritually, in the soul of every 
man who will turn to Him for spiritual life, and follow 
Him in the regeneration. He is always doing all that can 
be done for every man. 

THE ELDER BROTHER. 

But, after all this beautiful picture of the repentance 
and reform of the sinner, and of the boundless love and 
generosity of the Father, the parable does not stop: it 
has another side, a dark, cold shadow, cast by something 
that obstructs the flow of the clear, warm sunshine of the 
Father’s love. The elder son is angry, and out of sym¬ 
pathy with the feast of love. 


The Prodigal Son. 


45i 


The case of the elder son presents matter for careful 
thought. Why should he raise his voice as a harsh dis¬ 
cord amid this harmony of love? He seems like a double 
chara<5ter. In his long and faithful services, and his con¬ 
tinued obedience, he presents an estimable side. But, in 
his utter failure to rejoice in his lost brother’s return, and 
in his anger and complaint, he displays a spirit of envy, 
and of selfish uncharitableness. Like the self-righteous 
Pharisee in the temple, he boasted of his own goodness, 
and despised a sinner, even though that sinner was his 
brother, returned to a better life. For he had no reason 
to suppose that the penitent had not reformed. Not even 
the overflowing love and joy of his father could warm up 
the cold heart of the elder son. 

THE EXTERNAL MORAL MAN. 

This elder son stands as a representative of a natural- 
minded man, corre<5t in his outward life, seeking regen¬ 
eration on the natural plane, and yet without spirituality 
of mind, or of life. He is an external member of the 
Church, in the external reception of the truths of the 
Church. He is one who stands upon “original good,’’ 
a continued good life, in orderly externals ; but, in his 
present state, incapable of comprehending the interior 
quality of spiritual affection. He is like a pious Jew, en¬ 
vious of the Lord’s attention to the Gentiles. 

IN THE FIELD. 

When the repentant son arrived at the father’s house, 
the elder brother “was in the field,” i. e., he was in the 
external works of life, performing external uses, in a spirit 
of obedience to the law. And, in his appreciation of his 
own merits, he was envious of the father’s kindness to 
his brother. 


452 


Parables of the New Testament. 


THE CONTRAST. 

The elder son had led a corredl life, and he was proud 
of his record, and unsympathetic towards those who had 
fallen into sin. The younger son had done evil, yet he 
had repented, and reformed, and was very humble. And 
in the circumstances, the younger son was in a better 
spiritual state than the elder son. 

THE MUSIC AND DANCING. 

The elder son heard the “music and the dancing,’* 
the spiritual affection and the natural expression of it. 
But he was not in condition to respond to the joy of the 
household. He called a servant, and asked the meaning 
of these things ; i. e ., the mind of the natural man, com¬ 
ing in contact with the sphere of spiritual affe<5Hon, in¬ 
quires of his outward thought, as to the nature and 
quality of such a sphere of love. And he sees that the 
Lord’s love always does well to repenting sinners. 

WOULD NOT GO IN. 

But he has no sympathy with such a love. He is 
sullen, and will not go in; i. e ., the mind of the envious 
natural man feels an opposition to the sphere of an inte¬ 
rior, spiritual love, and is not willing to enter into such a 
state. It was natural that the elder son should feel indig¬ 
nation against the past evils of the younger son. But he 
was at fault, in thinking more of his brother’s past career, 
than of his present safety. Probably he feared that he 
would now have to divide his own share of the estate with 
his brother. 


THE FATHER ENTREATIF 


But, as he was angry, and in opposition, his father 


The Prodigal Son. 


453 


came out, and entreated him to go in, and welcome his 
brother; i. e ., an influx of truth from the Lord comes to 
the mind of the natural man, inclining him, if possible, to 
unite with spiritual affe<5tions, as heavenly blessings. But 
the natural mind, not yet regenerated, feels an opposition 
to the sphere of heavenly love. 

THE COMPLAINT. 

And it grumbles, to see that, in spite of their former 
evils, spiritual men are raised to high states of love and 
joy, while the natural man, in spite of his faithful obedi¬ 
ence, is never given even a kid, to be merry over, even 
a new state of faith, to rejoice in. But, the trouble is 
with the natural man himself; he will not rise to new and 
higher states of mind and life. 

THE FATHER’S REPLY. 

And the father replied, “Son, thou art ever with me; 
and all that I have is thine.’’ The external man of the 
Church, obeying the law, as the Divine law, is, in his 
measure, ever with the Lord; he does not go away into 
open sin. To the extent of his receptivity, all things of 
heaven are open to him, and are his, if he appreciates 
them, and uses them as principles in his own life. He 
can go on, and carry his regeneration further, if he will. 
The Lord is always ready to give him all the heavenly 
good and truth that he will love and use. He cannot 
fairly complain that others have attained greater degrees 
of regenerate life than he has, because these things are 
as open, and as free, to him, as they are to anyone. 

ORIGINAL GOOD. 

It is, indeed, blessed, if a man can remain in “orig¬ 
inal good,” living, from his youth up, in a good orderly 


454 


Parables of the New Testament. 


life, and attaining a high degree of regeneration. This is 
what all should try to attain. But, to do so, a man must 
see and know his evil inclinations, and must hate and shun 
all his tendencies to evil. And he must bring his .life into 
spiritual order, as well as into natural order. His natural 
good must be inwardly filled with spiritual good. He 
must not only do no wrong, but also hate and shun the 
feeling and thought of any wrong. And, until he does 
these things, his external correctness will not open his 
mind to the appreciation and experience of spiritual affec¬ 
tions. 


THREE HEAVENS. 

In fa<5t, there are three different heavens, because there 
are three different general kinds, or qualities, of regen¬ 
erate life, the natural, spiritual and celestial. And the 
characteristic quality of the life of each higher heaven is 
beyond the comprehension and experience of those who 
are in lower heavens. 

THE TWO BROTHERS. 

The natural-minded condition, even when orderly, and 
desiring regeneration, is but the first step in regeneration ; 
and, hence, it is represented by the elder brother, the 
first born. And the spiritual-minded state is a second 
step in regeneration ; and, hence, it is represented by the 
younger brother, a newer outbirth in development. And, 
when a newer spiritual condition comes, it comes as a 
result of enduring temptations. And, sometimes, we may 
fall, and waste our spiritual substance in riotous living in 
the things of worldly life, before we awake to a recogni¬ 
tion of our real condition, and come to ourselves, and 
arise, and go to our Father. 

And, if it be so, even our external mind should rejoice, 
and be glad, in the return of rationality and goodness. 


The Prodigal Son. 


455 


In each of us, there are these two sons; the elder, or the 
hard natural state, exacting, unappreciative, and critical, 
and the more affedtional younger son, of spiritual-mind- 
edness, often struggling out of evil tendencies, and finally 
attaining a higher condition of regeneration than the natural 
thought can appreciate, until the latter becomes reconciled 
and united with its younger brother. When evils and falses 
are indulged in our affe6tion and thought, the younger son 
is, for the time, lost and as dead; but when repentance and 
reformation lift us up into higher states, the lost one is found, 
and the dead is alive, again. 

WITHOUT FEAR. 

And here we have a suggestion that men need not live 
in fear of the past, even though it was sinful. No evil that 
we now hate, and have lived ourselves out of, will be held 
against us. The Lord does not keep a debtor and creditor 
account with us; but, in pure mercy, He gives us all the 
heavenly life and joy that we are willing to receive, through 
regeneration. 


REGENERATION. 

The great principle is simply this : that there is one life, 
the Lord’s life, and that men are sustained by that life; and 
that men are blessed and happy, when they are in right re¬ 
lations with the Lord, in love, faith and obedience. And 
they are in such condition, when, from sincere good princi¬ 
ple, they keep the Lord’s commandments. Whenever these 
right relations with the Lord are interrupted by selfishness 
and sin, the man cuts himself off from the source and means 
of happiness. And he can restore his connexion with the 
Lord, and with happiness, by sincere repentance and reform¬ 
ation, which enable the Lord to regenerate him. 


45& 


Parables of the New Testament. 


UNCHARITABLENESS. 

The elder son was kept in some external order, and yet, 
inwardly, he cherished hard, envious, and uncharitable feel¬ 
ings and thoughts. And, when an occasion arose, he dis¬ 
played these evil traits of character. He believed in his own 
innocence, and yet he fiercely condemned his brother, for fall¬ 
ing from a state of innocence. And yet, the elder brother 
had not been regenerated ; he had simply maintained a moral 
external life, which would make regeneration easier, if he 
was sincere. He saw the truth, and judged from truth, alone, 
without the charity which should have filled his heart, and 
should have guided his feelings and thoughts, in applying 
the truth to his brother. To the elder son, in his external 
state, judging by hard, cold truth, the mercy of his father 
seemed like weakness. But, from the standpoint of the 
father’s love, there was no weakness, but rather, the spiritual 
strength of love. 


SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

It is very hard for an externally moral man to avoid feel¬ 
ing a sense of superiority to a sinner. But, in this feeling, 
he fails to make acknowledgment of the fact that all men are 
sinners, secretly, if not openly. A feeling of superiority 
tends towards self-righteousness, which is one of the most 
malignant and subtle forms of human evil. Those who look 
upon themselves as saints will find themselves greatly mis¬ 
taken in the reception awaiting them in the spiritual world. 
In many cases, “the first shall be last, and the last, first.” 

Self-righteousness induced the Pharisees to suppose that, 
as Jesus associated with sinners, He must be like them, in 
character. They complained that He was trying to make 
sin and sinners respectable, instead of condemning them as 
outcasts. And yet those very sinners, including even the 
“ publicans and harlots,” were more influenced by the preach¬ 
ing of Jesus, than the Pharisees were. Many sinners saw 


The Prodigal Son. 


457 


their condition, and repented, while the Pharisees closed 
their hearts against the Lord, as well as against the good 
that He gave men, and the truth that He taught. 

PHARISEEISM. 

And to some extent we find the elder son, in the parable, 
a<5ling as the Pharisees a6ted. He condemned, in anger, and 
had no appreciation of the love that would save the lost. 
He thought his own rewards were not equal to his merits, 
while his brother’s sins were greatly rewarded. And, in this, 
he exhibited his own lack of spirituality of character. The 
elder brother could not do justice to the younger, as long as 
he did not feel right towards him. The younger son was 
not in a higher condition than he could have attained if he 
had resisted his evil inclinations; but he was in a far higher 
condition than if he had never seen and acknowledged his 
evils. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken 
and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.” 

HISTORICAL APPLICATION. 

In the parables of “The Lost Sheep,” and “The Lost 
Piece of Silver,” the Pharisees were shown how they should 
a61; and, in the parable of “The Prodigal Son,” they were 
shown how they did a6L 

In this parable, there is a suggestion ol the story of Cain 
and Abel, or faith and charity, in the decline of the Church. 
Cain, the elder son, was jealous of the acceptance of the 
offerings of his younger brother, Abel; and his envy led to 
sin, in the murder of Abel. And we see the same spirit of 
sullen anger in the elder brother of the prodigal. Faith and 
charity are separated, in an unrighteous man; but they are 
brought together, again, in the process of regeneration. 
For the understanding and the will of man are thus separ¬ 
ated, in his first condition. He knows truths, which he does 
not love or pra&ise. The understanding is more manage- 


458 Parables of the New Testavient. 

able, but the will is impulsive and unruly. But, when re¬ 
generated, the will attains the higher and more interior 
conditions, and then the will and the understanding come 
together in harmony. 

THE RECONCILIATION. 

The parable does not say the father finally reconciled the 
elder son to the younger; but it would need to be so, to re¬ 
present the full regeneration of the will and the understand¬ 
ing, or of charity and faith, or of the external and the internal 
mind. In the story of Cain and Abel we see the destruc¬ 
tion of charity by “faith alone” in the declining Church; 
and, in the present parable, we see the restoration of charity, 
in the New-Chureh. And, in the opposition of the elder 
brother, we see the opposition of all forms of external 
religions, and of the doctrine of “faith alone,” towards the 
restoration of the higher manhood, in the New-Jerusalem. 

But the Father will yet prevail upon the elder brother of 
faith to become reconciled to the younger brother of charity, 
or love, in his state of sincere repentance, reformation, and 
regeneration. And when the men of the New-Church rise 
to a high and holy life of Christian love, the Lord will be 
able to unite human faith and human love in the spiritual 
marriage of regeneration. Then will the New-Jerusalem 
have come down fully, from God, out of heaven, to dwell 
with men on earth. “And the Lord shall be King over all 
the^ earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and His 
name one.” 


The Unjust Steward . 


459 


XXXIV. 

€(jc Unjust ^tetoarti. 

(LUKE XVI. I—12.) 

EXECUTIVE WISDOM. 


THE PRINCIPLE. 

Good men, working for their spiritual future, should ex¬ 
hibit as much wisdom in administration, as is shown by 
worldly men, working for their worldly future. 

THE LITERAL SENSE. 

Viewed superficially, this parable has been thought to 
encourage fraud. But no such idea can be drawn from a 
careful and logical consideration of the text. A parable is 
not intended to be true by mere comparison, but by corre¬ 
spondence, which is a comparison of spiritual and natural 
counterparts. In the literal sense, the parable presents the 
case of a shrewd man, who made a prompt and worldly-wise 
use of his opportunities. He found himself in a critical po ¬ 
sition, and he exhibited forethought, readiness and deter¬ 
mination, in providing for himself, so that, -when discharged 
from his position, he would have security for the future. 
And the literal moral of the parable is clear enough, i. e. } 
that spiritual men ought to show equal executive ability, in 
escaping from impending spiritual dangers, and in providing 
for themselves, future spiritual protection and abiding- 
place. 



460 


Parables of the New Testament . 


THE SPIRITUAL SENSE. 

And, in the spiritual sense, there is an exadt meaning, by 
correspondence, as we shall see, as we proceed in the explan¬ 
ation. The Lord, in speaking to the natural-minded man, 
thus leaves a natural inference that he must make a good use 
of his natural riches, for the future life; and, to the spiritual 
man, He gives an intelligent diredfion for the rational con- 
du<5t of spiritual life. The parable represents a state of tempt¬ 
ation. 

To the natural man, provision for the future means the 
accumulation of worldly things ; but, to the spiritual man, it 
means growth in character; for a man spiritually provides 
for the future, by outgrowing his evils, and growing into 
goodness. 

When the spiritual man finds himself in spiritual trouble, 
by negledl of the interests of his spiritual Master, he provides 
for the future, by making friends of those natural and spirit¬ 
ual principles which will always feed him, and provide for 
him a future home. 

THE MAN, AND THE STEWARD. 

In the parable, “the rich man” is the Lord, the Divine 
Man; not merely because all things in the universe are His, 
but also, and primarily, because all goodness and truth are 
His. He is Goodness, itself, Truth, itself, and Life, itself. In 
a general sense, the steward is the Church, dispensing the 
Lord’s spiritual wealth. And in a limited sense, each indi¬ 
vidual man, as a Church in the least form, is a steward of the 
Lord, having charge of the Lord’s good and truth. 

WASTING THE GOODS. 

The steward was reported to the Lord as wasting his 
goods. These spiritual goods are the riches of spiritual 
life, the knowledges of good and truth, the principles of 


The Unjust Steward. 


461 

spiritual life, committed to men, for wise use. These spirit¬ 
ual goods are wasted by the man who neglects them, and 
who lives carelessly, making pious professions, without prac¬ 
tising the truth. And the Church, cohesively, wastes the 
Lord’s goods, when it teaches false doSrine, encouraging a 
careless life. And, through the whole history of the Church, 
the Lord has called it to account, for the abuse of its stew¬ 
ardship ; colleSively, through the holy Word, and individ¬ 
ually, through the conscience of the man. 

CALLED TO ACCOUNT. 

Naturally, when a man sees his great responsibility to the 
Lord, his conscience is moved. He sees that, in states of 
temptation, he is inclined to pervert his knowledges of good 
and truth, and to use them for selfish and worldly purposes. 
Then he is led to self-examination, to see what use he has 
made of his Master’s goods. And the evil spirits who are 
tempting him, urge him to think that he has sinned beyond 
possibility of redemption, and that he must lose his spiritual 
home. But the Lord a<51s upon the man, through what there 
is of good and truth remaining in him, and leads him to 
arouse himself to a sense of his need of reformation. 

And, in the judgment, the Lord’s truth calls every man, 
and every Church, to render an account of its stewardship. 
And every Church that fails to teach vital truths, finally hears 
the condemnation, “Thou mayest be no longer steward.” 
So there have been several general Churches, or dispensa¬ 
tions, varying in character. But, in the promised New-Je- 
rusalem, there will be the final and enduring Church, teach¬ 
ing the Lord’s truth from His open Word, in its literal and 
spiritual meanings. 

THE INWARD THOUGHT. 

When the man sees how he has wasted the Lord’s spirit¬ 
ual riches of truth, he says, “within himself,” “What shall I 


462 


Parables of the New Testament. 


do?” This is his inward thought, moved by his conscience. 
What shall I do, to free myself from my natural tendencies 
to evil? I fear that my negletT of spiritual riches will lead 
to my loss of them. 


DIGGING. 

“I canot dig;” literally, “I have not strength to dig.” 
Men who are not used to manual labor, do not feel able to 
do it, habitually. But, spiritually, to dig is to search into 
things, to learn their profound principles; to study and to 
inquire. As a man digs into the earth, to examine its con¬ 
tents, or to plant something, or to build something, so the 
spiritual man mentally seeks to penetrate beyond the sur¬ 
face of do<5trines, and of the letter of the Word: he digs 
into these things, that he may see what is in their depths ; 
that he may discover their treasures, or find room for further 
growth, or build up some better life. 

The man, in temptation, exclaims, “I have not strength 
to dig,” because he feels unable to procure his own mental 
and spiritual living, by his own investigations. He knows 
that he must depend on the Lord for truth; and that if his 
negle<5t of the Lord’s truth, and the abuse of it, should re¬ 
sult in his loss of truth, he cannot recover truth by any ef¬ 
fort of his own, apart from the Lord’s revelation. 

BEGGING. 

“To beg, I am ashamed i. e., he feels that he cannot go 
to the Lord, asking for the truth, when he has already had 
the truth, and has abused and neglected it. He is scarcely 
willing, as yet, to make a full confession of his utter helpless¬ 
ness, and to beg for Divine mercy and assistance. He is in 
temptation. Evil spirits, infesting his mind, keep him in 
despair. 


The Unjust Steward . 


463 


WHAT HE WILL DO. 

But he resolves what he shall do, when put out of his 
stewardship; i. e ., when he finds himself deprived of the 
riches of knowledge, by his negle<5t and abuse of them. In 
all these states of thought, the Lord is watching over the man, 
allowing him to come into humility and contrition, so that 
he may permit himself to be led into higher states of life. 
The man feels that he will be an outcast; and he seeks some 
way of providing for a future home. 

The action of the unrighteous steward is simply repre¬ 
sentative, representing the mind, in its efforts to provide 
an eternal mental home in the Lord’s good and true prin¬ 
ciples. 


THE HOUSE, ETC. 

The steward wished to be received into the houses of the 
debtors, etc. The house of every man’s spirit in his will, in 
his inward mind. In a good sense, when a man, by means 
of temptation, sees his own unworthiness, and fears spirit¬ 
ual death, and is led to repent and to reform, he is led out 
of the mental condition of a mere steward of other men’s 
goods, a mere learner and thinker of truths, and is led into 
the more advanced condition of a lover of good, as one of 
the family. These are representative things, not seen in the 
mere letter of the parable. When truth ceases to be the 
ruling principle of a man’s mind, and love takes its place, he 
is then no longer a mere steward, but is one of the family. 

CALLING THE DEBTORS. 

The steward called the debtors. Literally, these debtors 
may have been merchants, receiving goods from the rich 
man’s farm, or tenants, paying their rent in shares of the 
crop. Spiritually, eveiy man is a debtor to the Lord. The 
natural man is forced to acknowledge his debt to the Lord; 
but the spiritual man loves to acknowledge it. No man 


464 


Parables of the New Testame?it. 


can fully pay his debt to the Lord. But he can fully ac¬ 
knowledge his debt, and keep the Lord’s commandments. 

The debtors to the Lord are our will and our understand¬ 
ing, in which we live. And so we find, in the parable, many 
debtors implied, but two, only, particularly mentioned; be¬ 
cause all our spiritual debts are of two kinds, debts of the 
will and of the understanding; i. <?., of the affectional life and 
of the intellectual life. The oil, warm and smooth, repre¬ 
sents the things of our affections, which we call the good 
of love; while the wheat represents what we call the good 
of truth, the practical good of intellectual life. And the ques¬ 
tion, “How much owest thou?” is an inquiry of conscience, 
as to what we owe to our Lord, of the blessings of our two¬ 
fold life; what good affections and true thoughts of our act¬ 
ual life are derived from the Lord. 

THE DEBTS. 

One debtor acknowledges a debt of one hundred meas¬ 
ures of oil; and another, one hundred measures of wheat. 
Olive oil and wheat were the staple products of the Holy 
Land. So they are, representatively, as love and wisdom, 
the staple products of our spiritual life. One hundred is a 
general number, meaning all, or in general, a fulness. And, 
to acknowledge a debt of one hundred measures of oil, and 
of wheat, is to acknowledge that we owe to the Lord, all our 
goodness and all our practical truth. 

THE BILL, ETC. 

To take the bill, and to sit down, quickly, and write down 
a certain number, means to define our indebtedness to the 
Lord, in exact terms, so that we shall comprehend our re¬ 
lation to our Lord. Sitting is a somewhat fixed position, 
relating to the state of the will. And we write down our debt, 
in our hearts, when we desire and love to acknowledge it. 


The Unjust Stezvard. 


465 


NUMBERS. 

Numbers represent states and conditions of our mental 
life. One hundred represents what is full and complete. 
Fifty, when contrasted with one hundred, represents what is 
sufficient. No man can fully pay his debt to the Lord ; but 
he can, now, let the dead past go, and begin a new career of 
goodness. He can do all that can be done to pay his debts 
in the future, by acknowledging them, and by ceasing from 
evil, and keeping the Lord’s commandments. He cannot 
pay one hundred measures of oil; but he can pay fifty; i. e., 
he can do all that can now be done, to atone for the past, 
and to keep the future in good order. 

And the Lord will accept this, as sufficient; because no 
man can go back and undo the past, and remake it. If the 
man will now sit down in the truth, and write on his heart 
an acknowledgment of his debts to the Lord, and will keep 
the commandments, he will write his debt in his book of life, 
also; and from this he shall be judged. And, if he lives a 
new career, his life will not be in the old career. And the 
past half of his debt will be cancelled. 

And no man can go back, and pra<5tise all the neglected 
truth of the past: he must improve the living present, and 
thus make the future. He cannot pay his one hundred 
measures of wheat. But, in temptation, he can endure, when 
tempted to deny and negle6f the truth. And thus he can 
pay his present debt, as far as possible, by observing and fol¬ 
lowing the truth, now and henceforth, in temptation and in 
prosperity. 


EIGHTY. 

Four score, or eighty, represents temptation; because it 
is twice forty; and forty represents a state of temptation, as 
we see by its use in the Scriptures. There were forty days 
of flood; the Israelites were forty years in the wilderness; 
Jesus was forty days in the desert, tempted of the devil, etc. 


466 Parables of the New Testament. 

Thus, to pay eighty measures of wheat, is to stand by the 
truth, in temptations, even double temptations, which attack 
both the affections and the thoughts. It is to live by the 
Lord’s Word, in all things of the daily life. These things 
are all that we can do, to pay our debt to the Lord. As to 
the past, we may well cry, “ Enter not into judgment with 
Thy servant, for, in Thy sight, no man living shall be 
justified.” 


COMMENDING THE STEWARD. 

“ And the lord commended the unjust steward, because 
he had done wisely.” It was not Jesus who commended, but 
the rich man, the lord or master of the steward. And, in 
using the steward as a representative, Jesus did not aCt with¬ 
out Divine reason. It was necessary to use some case in 
which the man was brought into fear of loss of his place, 
through his own negleCt; and, therefore, no good and right¬ 
eous steward would have afforded the necessary elements for 
the parable. But Jesus did not countenance the steward’s 
unrighteousness, his fraud, his sin. He simply used the case 
to illustrate the man’s forethought, prudence, worldly wis¬ 
dom, prompt resolution, and executive ability; his readiness 
to meet a sudden emergency, and to provide for the future. 

POLICY. 

The word used in the ordinary translation is “wisely;” 
but this is not a. good translation. We associate a moral 
goodness with the idea of wisdom : but it is not so with this 
Greek word: it means worldly-wise, prudent, as a wise policy, 
the prudence of the serpent. Now, these characteristics of 
prudence, etc., are commendable, as traits of character, even 
when they are used for a bad purpose. Industry, careful¬ 
ness, promptness, punctuality, foresight, economy, resolution, 
executive ability, are to be admired, in any man, as traits of 
character. And we think of them, as apart from the spirit¬ 
ual character of the man. 


The Unjust Steward. 


467 


So, in correspondence, we think of certain traits, apart 
from the general charader. For instance, the keen far-sight¬ 
edness of the eagle corresponds to the mental breadth and 
keenness of vision of the spiritual man. We consider the 
eagle, in this case, simply as to his keen sight, and not as to 
his fierceness, as a bird of prey. So, the rich man com¬ 
mended the steward, from the steward’s own standpoint: he 
did well for himself; he showed ability to escape from a 
serious dilemma. 

WISER IN THEIR GENERATION. 

And Jesus called the attention of His disciples to the fa<5t 
that worldly men show more energy and wisdom, of their 
kind, and provide for themselves more prudently, than spirit¬ 
ual men are apt to do, while in the physical world. “For 
the children of this world are, in their generation [literally, 
‘for their generation’] wiser than the children of light.” 
The children of the world are the worldly-minded, who live 
for this world. And the children of light are those who 
have been born again, into the world of spiritual light, the 
light of heavenly truth. 

All states of human life are outbirths, generated by our 
ruling-love. The worldly man is a merely natural-minded 
generation. Everything in his chamber is generated by his 
love of the world. And so he lives for the world, only : he 
concentrates all his energy upon worldly things. And no 
wonder that he is more cunning, in his generation, than the 
spiritual man is in the world : for the spiritual man places his 
real life and energy in the inward world of spiritual life. 
“ The serpent was more subtle than any [other] beast of the 
field.” The senses, signified by the serpent, are wise in their 
generation; i. e ., in outward things, and for the sensuous life; 
but for this, only. Serpents are more cunning than lambs 
or doves. And “owls can see better than eagles, in the 
dark 


468 


Parables of the New Testament 


PRUDENCE NEEDED. 

Thus, in the parable, our Lord teaches us, pradlically, 
that we should be as ready and able to look after our spirit¬ 
ual interests, as worldly men are to look after their worldly 
interests. And so, on sending out His disciples, He said to 
them, “Be ye, therefore, prudent as serpents, and harmless 
as doves.” Our opportunities, our associations with each 
other, and all the circumstances of our life, might be made 
far more profitable to our spiritual life than we generally 
make them to be. And, in both natural and spiritual things, 
men of the church may well learn a lesson from the energy 
and ta<5f of the men of the world. 

MAKING FRIENDS WITH MAMMON. 

And, in the concluding part of the parable, we notice 
that what the Lord commends is not mere a<5livity, but faith¬ 
fulness to the matter in hand. When the Lord says, “ Make 
to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness,” 
He teaches us to use this world wisely, prudently, with 
prompt energy, skill and common sense, in order that we 
may make the things of this world a<5t as friends to our spirit¬ 
ual life, and not as enemies. This world becomes our enemy, 
spiritually, when we love it for itself alone, forgetting heav¬ 
enly principles; but it becomes our friend, when we secure 
the right use of it, as a training-school for heaven. Money 
and mental wealth will be “the mammon of unrighteous¬ 
ness” to us, if abused. But the same things, when wisely 
used, for spiritual life, cease to be unrighteous; but they will 
be friends, who will help to receive us into the mansions of 
heaven, because they will help to prepare us for heaven, in 
co-operation with the spiritual riches of heavenly truth. 

FAILING. 

When we “fail,” is when we die; when this world fails 


The Unjust Steward . 


469 


longer to provide for us; and also when, spiritually, we see 
that the things of the world fail to satisfy the higher long¬ 
ings of the human soul. 

FAITHFULNESS. 

Our Lord said, “ He that is faithful in that which is least, 
is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in the least, is 
unjust in muchbecause a man works from a certain prin¬ 
ciple of life, and that principle shows itself in the quality of 
its adlion, whatever may be the quantity of the a<5h “A 
good tree bringeth forth good fruit.” “A good man, out 
of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth good 
things.” 


LEAST AND MUCH. 

The “least” things are the beginnings of spiritual life: 
and, if a man is faithful to these, they will grow to be 
“much.” Again, natural things are “least,” and spiritual 
things are “ much :” and he who is faithful in natural things is 
faithful in spiritual things, for the same inward principle a6t- 
uates him in both. A man who is dishonest to men is dis¬ 
honest to the Lord. And a man who does not keep the 
commandments literally, does not keep them spiritually. 
“ If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how 
shall ye believe if I tell you heavenly things?” 

UNFAITHFULNESS. 

“If, therefore, ye have not been faithful in the unright¬ 
eous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true 
riches?” For, when we are unfaithful, the world becomes 
unrighteous to us ; i. <?., we love it, and a<5t in it, unright¬ 
eously. And, when this is so, how can we expert to attain 
the higher life of heaven? If we will not be faithful to the 
letter of our Lord’s Word, and of His commandments, how 
can we expe6I Him to trust us with the true riches of the in- 


4.70 Parables of the New Testament. 

ward and spiritual truth, that lies hidden from worldly eyes, 
in the profound depth of the spiritual meaning? 

When we neglect, or abuse, the truth, it dies out of our 
hearts and understandings, and remains in our memory, 
only; and then it does not govern our affe&ion and thought, 
nor come into our daily life. And then, though it is our 
Lord’s truth, it is not ours: we have not made it ours. 
“ And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another’s, 
who shall give you that which is your own.” 

So, in the parable of “The Talents,” the man who hid the 
one talent entrusted to him by his Lord, had even that one 
taken from him, and given to the man who had the ten tal¬ 
ents. Thus, the truth that we will not use, we must lose. 
And the truth which we will not be faithful to, because it is 
the Lord’s, we cannot make our own. But it would be our 
own, if we would make it so, by incorporating it into our 
life. 


THE WORK OF LIFE. 

Thus, in this parable, our Lord teaches us to have one 
well-defined purpose in life; i. e., to be regenerated ; and to 
bend all our energies to that great work, doing all we can 
to use the world as a friend and servant of the Lord. Thus 
we shall do all we can to pay our debt to our Lord, in and 
by our daily life. And then, inasmuch as we sincerely do 
good to the least of men, we shall do it to the Lord. 

We can take part in the world’s affairs, using common 
sense, skill, and energy, in performing uses; but not work¬ 
ing in a merely worldly spirit. We can use the world as a 
friend to heaven, and not as an enemy; bravely and ener¬ 
getically, and with prudence and executive ability, following 
every truth that we know. And then, when natural things 
fail to satisfy our open spirits, the higher aspects of heavenly 
truths will “receive [us] into everlasting habitations.” 


The Rich Man a?id Lazarus. 


47 i 


XXXV. 

€f)c a^att anti £a;aru£. 

(luke xvi. 19-31.) 

WORLDLY AND HEAVENLY RICHES. 


SUMMARY. 

Genuine reformation results from an earnest reception of 
Divine truths in the will, understanding and life. Great 
wealth of knowledges, unaccompanied by a disposition to 
live by the truth, cannot result in regeneration. But a sin¬ 
cere and eager desire for spiritual truth, in order to govern 
the life by it, will open even the ignorant mind to the light 
and warmth of heaven. Centering the affedlions upon the 
things of the outward world, closes the heart to the appre¬ 
ciation of heavenly things, and makes the man unable, be¬ 
cause unwilling, to receive heavenly life, either here or here¬ 
after. 


THE CONTRAST. 

In the parable, the pidlure is made up of opposites and 
extremes, sharp contrasts, in the life, in the death, and in the 
world to come. And, in the meaning of the parable, we 
must expedf to find extremes of character. One man is rich, 
and the other poor; one is covered with purple and fine 
linen, and the other with rags and sores; one lives daintily, 
and in plenty, and the other receives but a few scraps to 
appease his hunger; one is attended by a company of slaves, 
obedient to his every whim, and the other is left, without 



472 Parables of the New Testament. 

human care, to the pity of the dogs; the body of one is 
buried with pomp and lamentation, and the loathsome car¬ 
cass of the other is hurried to an unmarked grave, without a 
word of sympathy, or a tear of regret. 

But, when the earth receives their bodies, the contrast 
does not end. One died amid luxury, and awoke to misery, 
as he sank into the abodes of the evil; but the other passed 
from the hard, cold stone, and from the negleCt of harder 
and colder men, into the company of angels, in the spiritual 
world. 

Angels were as ready to lead the rich man’s soul to 
heaven, as the poor man’s; but he who had fixed his heart 
upon the good things of the material world, gave no heart¬ 
felt response to the angelic invitations, and felt no inward 
drawing towards the beatitudes of heaven. 

HISTORICAL APPLICATION. 

Historically, the parable refers to the Jews and the Gen¬ 
tiles. The Jews were rich in possessing the Divine Word 
of the Old Testament; and thus they were able, if willing, 
to live in spiritual feasting. But the Gentiles were poor, in 
their ignorance of the Lord’s Word. And the well-disposed 
among the Gentiles were desirous to be instructed from the 
Lord’s Word. And, in the rejection of heavenly things by 
the Jews, and in the regeneration of many Gentiles, we see 
the application of the words, “ He hath filled the hungry with 
good things, and the rich He hath sent empty away.” 

REPRESENTATIVE MEANING. 

In its abstract application, the parable refers to states and 
conditions of life, rather than to persons. The whole scene 
is laid in the individual mind of each regenerating man. 
Each of us has his rich man and his Lazarus, his worldliness 
and his spirituality of character. And, in each of us, the 
natural temptation is to favor the rich man of worldliness 


The Rich Man and Lazarus . 


473 


and to starve the Lazarus of spirituality, as a mere beggar 
for inward life, amid the pomp and pleasures of sensuous ex¬ 
istence. 


RICHES. 

Spiritually speaking, a rich man is one who knows many 
truths of the Lord’s Word, and who thus possesses the means 
of spiritual life. The Lord’s Word, with its Divine truth, 
constitutes the riches of heaven. Especially are they rich, 
spiritually, who know the internal, spiritual meaning of the 
Lord’s Word, and who thus see truth in its own spiritual 
light. 


PURPLE AND FINE LINEN. 

Symbolically, garments represent truths, which are the 
clothing of good principles. The letter of the Word of God 
clothes the naked truth of its inward meaning, and thus 
adapts it to natural men. Purple was the royal color. In 
the New-Church, we use the term knowledges, for what we 
know, of good, of truth, etc., all the various principles and 
fa<5Is known to the mind. The purple garment represented 
the knowledges of good, of things to be loved and done; 
and the fine linen garment represented the knowledges of 
truth, or things to be believed. The man whose mind is 
rich in the knowledges of good and truth is, spiritually, 
clothed in purple and fine linen. 

FARING SUMPTUOUSLY. 

And he fares sumptuously, every day; i. <?., he has, in 
every state of life, in every condition of his affe<5tion and 
thought, the knowledge necessary to enable him to live upon 
heavenly principles. He feasts mentally. And he feels de¬ 
light in what he knows. 


474 


Parables of the New Testament , 


THE BEGGAR. 

Spiritually, a beggar is one who is without knowledges, 
and who seeks to know the things necessary to life. The 
word, Lazarus, means “without help i. e ., without help of 
knowledge, or truth. Historically, Lazarus represents the 
Gentiles, who were without the help of the Lord’s Word. 
But, individually, Lazarus represents the well-disposed Gen¬ 
tile state, in our minds, an ignorant, but childlike state, eager 
and willing to learn. 


THE GATE. 

The gates of the rich were common places of resort for 
beggars, where they might expeCt both food from the house, 
and money from the visitors. A gate serves to introduce to 
what is beyond and within. So a gate represents introductory 
truths, the teachings, or do&rines, which introduce the mind 
to that which it seeks. Every science has its introductory 
truths. The beggar was outside, seeking something from 
within, but was despised, and an outcast. So, to the Jews, 
the Gentiles were despised outcasts. And, so, in our natural 
minds, full of their sensuous self-importance, our childlike, 
humble, Gentile states of mind are apt to be regarded as 
things to be despised and cast out. 

THE BEGGAR’S SORES. 

The beggar was “full of sores i. e ., the Gentile state of 
mind is full of natural false principles, being without genuine 
truth, although well-disposed. Good health makes a sound 
body, but bad blood often shows itself in sores. So, mentally, 
false principles show themselves in the outward life, keeping 
the mental circulation impure. So, we read, in Isaiah, con¬ 
cerning the natural mind, “from the sole of the foot, even 
unto the head, there is no soundness in it; but wounds and 
bruises, and putrefying sores.” As the natural body of poor 


The Rich Man a?id Lazarus. 


475 


Lazarus was repulsive and unclean, so the unregenerate nat¬ 
ural mind of every man, even when ignorant and well-dis¬ 
posed, is spiritually unclean in the sight of angels. 

DOGS. 

Dogs represent those principles which, or those persons 
who, are on a very external and sensuous plane of life; who 
know little and talk much; but who often perform some 
very external uses, and even vile uses. Sensuous good, like 
the dog, is faithful to its trust. The dog licking the sores, 
to heal them, represents the effort of natural good affe<5tions 
(however low in quality,) to restore the mind to order. Men 
in such states have natural pity, and a desire to heal, or in- 
strudl, those who are in spiritual poverty, suffering from 
ignorance of truth, and from false principles of conduct. 

ABRAHAM’S BOSOM. 

The beggar died; i. e., he was removed from a natural 
to a spiritual state. And he was carried, by the angels, into 
Abraham’s bosom. Abraham’s, bosom was a poetical and 
representative expression, common among the Jews, to repre¬ 
sent paradise. John, the beloved disciple, was said to lie in 
Jesus’ bosom, at the last supper. The bosom, where the 
heart is, represents love. Abraham represents the Lord, 
and his bosom represents the Lord’s love. 

DEATH OF THE RICH MAN. HADES. 

The rich man, also, died, and was buried; i. e. y he passed 
into the spiritual world ; but he sank into a sensuous, low con¬ 
dition, in which he was buried in sin. 

“And in hell,” (as the text commonly reads,) “he lifted 
up his eyes, being in torment, and seeth Abraham,” etc. 
The Greek word is “hades,” which does not mean hell, but 
the world of spirits, the intermediate state, between death and 


476 Parables of the New Testament. 

the judgment, the paradise, into which the thief on the cross 
went to meet Jesus. Recognizing the common mistransla¬ 
tion, the New Version of the New Testament gives the word 
“ hades,” not hell. Hades is the first condition after death, 
into which all men go, and where the judgment occurs. 
Good persons pass through hades, or the world of spirits, 
into heaven, and the evil pass through it into hell. 

TWO PARTS OF HADES. 

But, as the man’s final home is determined by his life in 
this world, according to his opportunities, so there are, prac¬ 
tically, two sides to hades, the good side, in which good men 
are preparing to enter into heaven; and the bad side, in 
which evil men are preparing for hell. And so, pradfically, 
in the world of spirits, or hades, a man is in the beginnings 
of heaven or of hell. And, as evil character necessarily in¬ 
duces suffering, those who are in the evil side of hades must 
be suffering, as they come more and more fully to develop 
their inward charadfer. Still, while there, they can elevate 
their thought, to some extent, and can consider their con¬ 
dition ; but, as their hearts are confirmed in evils, they are 
not willing to change their character. And they soon forget 
even the fa<5f that they are evil. 

ABRAHAM AFAR OFF. 

The rich man (commonly called “ Dives,” which means 
rich,) saw Abraham “afar off,” because the character of the 
rich man was very far removed from a heavenly condition. 

COOLING THE TONGUE. 

The rich man asked to have Lazarus wet his tongue with 
water. This cry was not a sincere prayer for reform and 
regeneration : it was a cry of misery, because he found him¬ 
self in a state of restraint, where he could not pervert the 


The Rich Man and Lazarus. 


477 


truth, nor torment the good, in others, as he had done on 
earth, or in his own external mind. 

Water represents literal truth, such as the commandments 
of life. And to cool the tongue is to assauge the man’s men¬ 
tal thirst for attacking and perverting the truths of the Di¬ 
vine Word ; i. e ., of abusing and misapplying spiritual riches. 
For, in the world of spirits, as the evil man comes more and 
more into his real and inward character, he loses, more and 
more, even the knowledge of the truths which he would not 
use. 

The tongue, which speaks, represents the do&rine which 
is spoken. We all know how hard it is for any one to be 
put in a position where he has to control his tongue, when 
he would like to speak evil and unkind things. And so, in 
the world of spirits, the evil man suffers, because he finds 
himself growing less and less able to attack and pervert true 
and good principles, as he loses even the knowledge of them. 
The flame in which he suffers is the fire of his own evil pas¬ 
sions. Physical fire could not affe6t a spirit, who is in a 
spiritual body, formed of spiritual substance. Evil spirits 
feel punishment, in their inability to give vent to all their 
evil passions. 


GOOD THINGS. 

Abraham reminds the rich man that he had his good 
things in the natural world, because, as a natural-minded 
man, he fixed his heart upon the things of outward life, and 
regarded such things as the real and only good things; and 
so he had not fitted his mind to appreciate, and to enjoy, the 
good things of a heavenly life. The things of the sensuous 
life appear to be good : but, apart from spiritual life, they are 
not good, but evil. So, to the natural man, trials and tempt¬ 
ations appear to be evil things; but they are the means of 
receiving the good things of spiritual life. 

And so the mind that is fixed upon worldly good things 
alone, seems to have its good things in this world, and yet 


478 


Parables of the New Testament. 


it is not prepared for the genuine good things of heaven; 
and the mind that passes this life amid trials and sorrows, 
may become, by reformation, fitted for heavenly good things. 
And the life of evil necessarily leads to sorrow. The Psalm¬ 
ist speaks of “men of the world, whose portion is in this life.” 
And Jesus said to the worldly rich men, “ Woe unto you that 
are rich, for ye have received your consolation.” 

CIRCUMSTANCES ONLY MEANS. 

Neither a state of poverty nor one of riches can be, in it¬ 
self, against a man. A good man can make any circum¬ 
stances afford him an opportunity to aCt from good principles; 
as a good sailor can make a wind from any direction carry 
him into port. As, by “tacking,” the mariner can sail di¬ 
rectly against the course of the wind, so a good man can turn 
adverse influences to serve his purposes. Neither knowl¬ 
edge, nor the want of knowledge, will either save or condemn 
any man; but the use or abuse of what he knows. Much 
knowledge, used for sensuous life, may give sensuous pleas¬ 
ure, but spiritual misery: and little knowledge may occasion 
trial and temptation, but, well used, may lead to heavenly 
joy. “ A little that a righteous man hath, is better than the 
riches of many wicked.” Often, both literally and spiritually, 
“They that did feed delicately are in the streets; they that 
were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.” 

THE GREAT GULF. 

After death, men do not change their character. “ There 
is a great gulf [or chasm] fixed” between the evil and the 
good; not merely in location, but also, and primarily, in 
character. The great chasm that separates the evil man from 
heaven is in his own heart, and in his own life. Good and 
evil are opposites: they cannot live together: there is no¬ 
thing in common between them. Goodness lives in the glad 
reception of life from the Lord; but evil lives in the fierce 


The Rich Man and Lazarus . 


479 


reje&ion of all Divine and heavenly good and truth. What 
is heaven to one, would be hell to the other. 

As to mere locality, the Lord can send angels on errands 
of mercy to the hells, when He so desires, and when any 
good can be accomplished thereby. But, as the evil spirits 
hate good, they hate the angels, and are tormented by their 
presence, as the diseased eye is tormented by the sunlight. 
There is nothing good that the Lord and the angels would 
not do for the devils, to help them ; but the devils are utterly 
unwilling to receive any help of a heavenly character. 

The man who, in this life, abuses his mental and material 
riches, is like a player in a theater, who, for a little season, 
assumes the part of a rich man; but who, when the play is 
over, throws off his robes, and goes home to a hovel. 

THE BRETHREN, ETC. 

The five brethren of the rich man are all who are in a 
similar state, and who are mentally his brethren. His father’s 
house is the condition of his ruling-love, and the things de¬ 
rived from it. The evil mind desires to pervert the truth. 
And, if it cannot do this, then it still seeks to have liberty 
given to all the brethren of the mind, all the false principles 
in the natural mind, derived from, or fathered by, the ruling- 
love. When the man finds himself fixed in his evil life, he 
still hopes to have liberty to exercise his evil desires and 
false thoughts. 

And, in the intermediate state, before the judgment, if, 
in a moment of elevated understanding, he claims that he was 
in ignorance of the truth, and so should not be judged by it, 
he will be shown that he had the Word of the Lord, in which 
is all truth, adapted to all and every state of mind and life, 
in men. And he will be taught that all the things in him, 
even those which he thought were good and true, are tainted 
with the quality of his ruling-love; that all the brethren of 
his mind have the same general character, and the same op¬ 
position to all good and truth. 


480 


Parables of the New Testament. 


MOSES AND THE PROPHETS. 

“ They have Moses and the prophets: let them hear 
them.” “Moses and the prophets,” or “the law and the 
prophets,” represent the whole of the Old Testament Word 
of God. The books of Moses and the prophecies, were, 
especially, read in all the Jewish synagogues: and hence no 
Jew had any excuse for being ignorant of the Divine com¬ 
mandments. To “hear” “Moses and the prophets,” is to 
hear them in the memory, and to be instructed; to hear 
them in the understanding, and to believe; and to hear them 
in the heart, and to love and obey. 

RECEIVING THE TRUTH. 

Truth carries its own evidence to the mind that is open 
to it. The mind to which truth is demonstrated by “the 
self-evidencing reason of love,” needs no external demon¬ 
stration. The natural man calls for signs and wonders, be¬ 
cause he is not open to the light of truth. What the evil 
man needs, is not more evidence of truth, but more disposi¬ 
tion to believe the truth. Evidence of spiritual truth is 
never sufficiently strong, or sufficiently abundant, to convince 
the man who is not disposed to receive it. And, in faCt, it 
would be dangerous to compel a man to believe what he is 
not willing to accept; for then he would be guilty of profan¬ 
ing the truth, and thus in greater condemnation. 

LEARNING FROM THE DEAD. 

Visions, and talking with the dead, never confirm a man 
in truth that is against his ruling-love. The Lord could eas¬ 
ily compel every man intellectually to see the truth, if that 
would be of any use to the man. Jesus, Himself, rose from 
the dead; but that faCt did not convince His enemies of His 
Divine character, or of the truth of His teachings. And it 
is noticeable that, after His resurrection, Jesus did not show 


The Rich Man and Lazarus . 48 1 

Himself to His enemies, but only to His disciples. Saul did 
not reform his charadter, after his attempt to call up Samuel 
from the dead, through the witch of En-dor. And, in fadf, 
he disobeyed the Divine law when he consulted a witch, to 
call up the dead. The Word of the Lord teaches principles, 
and precepts of life, adapted to all men. And no man, ris¬ 
ing from the dead, could teach truth in any better way than 
it is taught already, in the Scriptures. 

THE NEW CHURCH VS. SPIRITISM. 

This is the inherently weak point in modern Spiritism: 
it has nothing new to say; and it seeks to prove to the out¬ 
ward senses what ought to be seen by spiritual insight. And 
it should be called Naturalism, not Spiritualism. How dif¬ 
ferent the mission of Swedenborg. He was illuminated by 
the Lord, that he might be an instrument to open the Scrip¬ 
tures, and to open men to the Scriptures; and to show men 
that all truth is in the holy Word of the Lord, not only in 
its letter, but also in its inward, spiritual sense. And so, 
in fadt, Swedenborg offers the only effective antidote to 
modern Spiritism. “To the law, and to the testimony; if 
they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is 
no light in them.” And nothing that arises from the spirit¬ 
ually dead state of our own evils, can convince us of any 
truth. 


BELIEF NOT COMPELLED. 

Miracles did not convince those who were opposed to the 
Lord’s principles. “ Though He had done so many miracles 
before them, yet they believed not on Him.” And, in His 
own country, “Jesus did not many mighty works, because 
of their unbelief.” And yet, if miracles were intended to com¬ 
pel belief, they would seem to have been most needed where 
unbelief was most prevalent. And in these days, men who 
ascribe all things to nature, would not listen to any one claim- 


482 Parables of the New Testament. 

mg to come From the spiritual world. And men cannot be 
frightened into heaven. Fear of hell will not produce love 
of the goodness and truth which make heaven. Heaven is 
positive, not negative. 

It is a law of the Divine Providence, that a man shall, as 
of himself, remove evils, as sins, in his external man, and 
thus, and not otherwise, the Lord can remove evils in the in¬ 
ternal man, and, at the same time, in the external man. A 
man in whom evil rules is, already, a hell; and the man in 
whom heavenly principles rule is, already, a form of heaven. 
Regeneration cannot be effected, except by hearty and sin¬ 
cere reception of the principles of Divine Truth, in the heart, 
understanding and life. The parable emphasizes the con¬ 
trast between being rich in worldliness and rich in goodness. 
The contrast is not precisely between heaven and hell, but 
between those states of life on earth which finally make 
heaven and hell. 


The Unprofitable Servant . 483 



xxxvr. 

€f)C Unprofitable ^crbant. 

(luke xvii. 7 - 10 .) 

THE NATURAL MIND SERVING THE SPIRIT. 


SUMMARY. 

No man can do more than his duty to the Lord. For, 
as soon as it is clear to him, that it lies in his power 
wisely to do certain good uses, it becomes his duty to do 
them. For it is always a man’s duty to do all the good 
that lies in his power, in keeping the Lord’s command¬ 
ments. 


THE LITERAL SENSE. 

In the literal sense, the meaning is clear. As a serv¬ 
ant, in performing his usual duty, does not place his 
master under special obligation ; so men, the servants of 
the Lord, cannot claim any merit for their service. In 
the text, the servant was a bond-servant, whose relation 
to his master was much less independent than that of a 
servant in Our day, in our country. 

MASTER AND SERVANT. 

We have two minds, or two parts of our mind, the 
natural and the spiritual. And the relation of master and 
servant exists between our spiritual and internal mind, and 
our natural or external mind. The servant is'the natural 



4*4 


Parables of the New Testament. 


mind, or natural man, which learns truth, and does good, 
as of itself, but from the indwelling spirit, and according 
to the desires and commands of the spirit. 

PLOWING. 

The servant is said to be “plowing, or feeding cattle,’’ 
or, literally “feeding the flock,” meaning sheep. The 
servant plows the ground, to prepare it to receive the 
seed, and to bring forth the crop. So, a man spiritually 
plows, when he prepares his mind to receive the seed of 
Divine truth, that the seed may produce a crop, in the 
deeds of his daily life. Plowing the ground especially 
refers to the preparation of the understanding for the in¬ 
telligent reception of Divine truths from the Lord’s 
Word. 


FEEDING THE SHEEP. 

And feeding the flock of sheep, refers to the cultiva¬ 
tion of the will, or heart. Sheep correspond to charity, 
or love to the neighbor. And feeding the sheep, or tak¬ 
ing care of them, represents cultivating charity. Both 
the culture of the understanding, and of the will, are good 
uses, of a high order, requiring sincerity, industry, and 
obedience to the commands of the Divine Master. 

THE SERVANT’S WORK. 

And yet these uses are performed by the servant, the 
natural mind, as of itself, yet adtually from the influence 
of the inward, spiritual mind. We must compel ourselves 
to heed the teachings of the Lord’s Word, and to learn 
these teachings, as precepts and do&rines; and we must 
make an effort to break up our old natural conditions of 
thought and feeling, in order that we may be in a state to 
receive the new truths which the Lord reveals to us. 


The Unprofitable Servant. 


485 


And we must determinedly resist our wrong feelings, and 
try to feel as the Lord teaches us to feel, towards Him, 
and towards our fellow-men. 

And the work of thus plowing, or preparing our minds, 
and of feeding the sheep, or cultivating our good affec¬ 
tions, is our daily labor, as servants of our Lord. And 
our natural minds must do this work, in their way, on 
their plane, as servants of our spiritual minds. 

ILLUSTRATION. 

For instance : we are not to indulge our anger, simply 
because we are so inclined; but we are to resist the inclina¬ 
tion, because the Lord teaches us that anger is evil. And 
we are not to expeft that our inward, spiritual mind will 
lift us out of all tendencies towards anger ; but we are to 
resist the natural desire and tendency when, and when¬ 
ever, they arise ; and our inward, spiritual minds will ex¬ 
ert their influence, in giving us light to see our duty, and 
in supporting our efforts to do our duty. So, the master 
does not do the servant’s work, but he commands the 
servant, directs him, and supports him. 

SPIRITUAL AND NATURAL. 

And the parable refers to this relation between our 
external, or natural, mind, and our internal, or spiritual, 
mind. The spiritual mind, or spiritual part of the mind, 
enlightens, dire&s, commands, and supports, the natural 
mind, or natural part of the mind. And the natural 
mind, as of itself, receives and obeys the commands of 
the spiritual mind. This is the orderly and heavenly re¬ 
lation, in the regenerate condition; and, in this state, 
both the spiritual mind and the natural mind are filled 
with happiness, each in its own degree. 

But, when this heavenly relation is interrupted, the 
whole man is brought into disorder, and into unhappiness. 


486 


Parables of the New Testament. 


For the natural mind cannot see clearly, and a< 5 t wisely, 
without the influence of the spiritual mind; and, without 
the practical activity of the natural mind, the spiritual 
mind cannot have its outward uses performed. The serv¬ 
ant and the master must depend upon each other. 

THE FIELD. WORK AND REST. 

The servant is said to come in from the field. The 
field is the natural life, where the aCtual work is done, 
where truth is learned, and good affections are developed. 
We have alternations of state, sometimes working, and 
sometimes resting. The rest, after work, represents the 
mental rest of peace and delight, after the labor of learn¬ 
ing and cultivating good principles. We labor in resist¬ 
ing our evil tendencies, and in compelling ourselves to do 
good. And we rest when our spiritual mind gains con^ 
trol over our natural mind. 

EATING AND DRINKING, ETC. 

To eat food, and to drink, mean mentally to eat; to 
receive, and accept as our own, the good and true prin¬ 
ciples of the Lord’s Word. These are our spiritual food. 
As the Lord said, “My meat and drink is to do the will 
of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work.” To sit 
down, being a somewhat fixed position, means to fix the 
will upon what we are doing. To sit down and eat, is to 
fix our will upon the good and true principles which come 
to us from our Lord, and to appropriate these principles; 
to make them our principles of life. And, in this recep¬ 
tion of spiritual food, there is delightful spiritual rest. 

THE MASTER SERVED FIRST. 

But the natural mind cannot enter into this rest, nor 
be filled with spiritual food, until, through its service, the 


The Unprofitable Servant. 487 

spiritual mind has first been filled. And so the servant 
serves his master, and, afterwards, sits down to his own 
supper. Thus the master says, “Make ready wherewith 
I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have 
eaten and drunken ; and, afterward, thou shalt eat and 
drink.” 


MAKING READY. 

To make ready, is to have the natural mind do its 
preparatory work of learning the doctrines of the Church, 
and of resisting evil inclinations, and of keeping the 
Lord’s commandments. When the natural mind, as a 
servant, does these things, it prepares the supper for the 
master, the spiritual mind. Thus it opens the door, that 
the Lord may come in, and sup with the spiritual mind, 
and that the spiritual mind may sup with Him. The man 
must have the knowledges of truth before he can apply 
them. Conjunction with the Lord is by knowledge of 
truth, love of truth, and a life of truth. And the man 
must make ready to receive the Lord, by casting out the 
things that oppose the Lord. 

GIRDING. 

To gird one’s self, is to gather up the long skirt of 
the robe, and to hold it up by the girdle, or belt; thus 
leaving the feet free for moving about. Garments repre¬ 
sent knowledges, truths known. These are spiritually 
girded up, lifted up from the feet, when, from love, the 
man elevates his mind, lifting up these truths, to see them 
in their higher phases, in connexion with spiritual things. 
Thus the natural mind, as the servant, girds himself, and 
serves the spiritual mind, as the master, until the master 
has eaten and drunken; i. e ., until, by the practice of 
good principles, as Divine truths, the inward spirit is 
brought into conjunction with heaven and the Lord. 


488 


Parables of the New Testament 


SERVING. 

The Divine principles are fixed, confirmed, in the 
spiritual mind, by being sincerely done in the natural 
mind and life ; and then the Divine influences can flow 
through the spiritual mind, and fill the natural mind, also. 
Then both the servant and the master can feed upon spir¬ 
itual food and drink. 

But, if the natural mind attempts to satisfy itself, first, 
and in its own worldly way, before serving the spiritual 
mind, it will not elevate itself to heavenly phases of truth ; 
but it will see and receive worldly, natural things, only. 
Then it will fall into disorder and error. Thus, it can 
serve itself best, by serving the spiritual mind first ; for it 
must serve the Lord, in the light, and by the guidance, of 
the spirit. “Seek ye first, the kingdom of God and His 
righteousness, and all these [external] things shall be 
added unto you.” 

Throughout human history, all departures from good, 
and from spirituality of charafter, have arisen in the at¬ 
tempt of the natural mind to serve itself first. This was 
the “fall of man,” as figuratively portrayed in the de¬ 
parture from Eden, under the advice of the subtle serpent, 
the natural senses, in the low and grovelling form of life. 
No man can reach heaven from the senses, without the 
direction of an enlightened spirit; for no man can receive 
and appropriate the good that is in any truth, in his nat¬ 
ural mind, until after he has interiorly acknowledged it to 
be the Lord’s truth, and until he has loved it, and done 
it, as the Lord’s. 


REGENERATE ORDER. 

The internal, the spirit, must first be brought into re¬ 
generate order ; and only when the spiritual mind afts 
from regenerate afleftions, can the natural mind give up 
its self-will, and aft from heavenly motives, guided by the 


The Unprofitable Servant. 


489 


spirit. Heaven comes to men inwardly. “ The kingdom 
of God is within you.” And the natural mind and life 
are filled with regenerate life, through the spiritual mind. 

The servant must first serve his master, and, afterwards, 
he may eat and drink. The natural mind is nourished 
and filled with heavenly life, in the degree in which it 
serves the spiritual mind. The spiritual mind looks to 
the spiritual world, and the natural mind looks to the nat¬ 
ural world. And so, what a man does, in the natural 
mind and life, from the regenerate spiritual mind, he does 
from heaven, and from the Lord. But what he does from 
his natural mind, alone, he does from himself. 

NO OBLIGATION. 

But, when the natural mind serves the spiritual mind, 
the spiritual mind is not under any obligation to the nat¬ 
ural mind ; for the latter cannot attain its own best condi¬ 
tion, except through what it does for the spirit. ‘ ‘ Doth 
he thank that servant, because he did the things that were 
commanded him? I trow not.” That is, the master does 
not feel under any special obligation to the servant. It is 
the law of heavenly order, for the external to serve the in¬ 
ternal, the body to serve the mind, the natural mind to 
serve the spirit. So, in the physical body, the outward 
skin serves the heart and lungs, which are internal ; and 
the skin finds its own happiness, and maintains its own 
order, only in so far as it serves the vital organs. 

UNPROFITABLE SERVANTS. 

“So, likewise, ye, when ye shall have done all those 
things which are commanded you, say, we are unprofit¬ 
able servants; we have done that which was our duty to 
do.” That is, we produce no extra profit for the Lord, 
beyond our ordinary duty. And, in serving the Lord, 
we find our own life. Men have nothing of which they 


490 


Parables of the New Testament. 


should boast. They can do no more than their duty. 
And they must depend upon the Lord to give them light 
to see their duty, and strength to do it. 

All merit is in the Lord, and not any in man. No man 
can do any real good, except in the name of the Lord. 
Men are merely recipients of the Divine Life, each in his 
degree, as to quality and quantity. And the most any 
man can do, is to prepare himself to serve the Lord, and 
to find his happiness in keeping the Lord’s command¬ 
ments. There is no merit in a man’s keeping the laws 
which it is his best interest to keep. 

But the unregenerate natural man ascribes merit to 
himself. And yet, “A man can receive nothing, except 
it be given him from heaven.” See the little brook, grad¬ 
ually swelling to the proportions of a majestic river, and 
carrying a flood of waters to the sea. But, does the river 
imagine that it is doing great favors to the sea ? Whence 
came the waters of the river? From the sea, by evapor¬ 
ation, and clouds, and the rain. And well may the 
mighty ocean say to the flowing river, “Without me, ye 
can do nothing.” And, through the whole universe, 
there is a circulation of life from the Lord, going out into 
all things, filling and moving each according to its organi¬ 
sation ; performing uses, blessing all, and returning to the 
Lord, through the thankful hearts and lives of regenerate 
men. 

HUMILITY. 

The parable teaches us a lesson of humility. And its 
truths are very unwelcome to him who lives for praise. All 
that we can do is only our duty. And where are the men 
who have done all that they could have done, in every 
thing? And, if we could find any such, they would be 
the very ones who would not claim any merit for them¬ 
selves. 

The old idea that the Church on earth is a communion 


The Unprofitable Servant. 491 

of saints is all wrong; it is a band of fellow-sinners, con¬ 
fessing their evils, and looking to the Lord for help. 

man’s two-fold nature. 

It is a beautiful order of life, in man, when his spirit¬ 
ual, internal mind has full government over his obedient 
natural mind; when all his life as an animal is under the 
control of his life as a regenerate spirit. In this blessed 
condition, his animal nature is not destroyed, but refined 
and humanized. Its delights are still permitted, but they 
are made rational and pure. 

The condition of man, half human, half beast, was 
well represented in ancient symbolic mythology, by the 
sphynx, the centaur, and the satyr, half human, but also 
half lioness, or half horse, or half goat. But, in each 
case, the human side was above, uppermost, and the ani¬ 
mal side below. The body, or part of it, was, in each 
case, a beast, but the head, which dire6led it, was human. 
And how true to nature are these representations. In 
human nature we find aspiring intelligence, and refined 
affections, coupled with the grossness of a beast. Do we 
not recognize the likeness, in our own hereditary nature? 
And blessed be the Lord, that He shows us how to tame 
the beast, and helps us to rise above it. 

You say it is hard to rise beyond the beast’s low in¬ 
fluence. Yes; it is always hard for the hells to submit to 
the heavens. And our unregenerate natural man is in¬ 
fernal. And the more strongly the lower nature holds 
us, the harder it is for us to break away. But we have 
the perfe6t example of our Lord, Jesus Christ, in His as¬ 
sumed humanity. And what He did, as a man on earth, 
He gives us light and strength to accomplish, in our 
degree. Generations of indulgence have unduly devel¬ 
oped the strength of our animal nature. 


492 


Parables of the New Testament . 


ILLUSTRATION. 

Imagine yourself walking along a road, and suddenly 
seeing a beautiful child, held in the clutches of a demon. 
Horror would stir your heart to instant and great exertion, 
to destroy the horrid demon, and to rescue the imperiled 
child. But, do we not now see this terrible spedlacle? 
Is it not, in some measure, the case with us all ? Is there 
not, in each of us, the Lord’s child of the soul, held in 
the strong grasp of the demon of our self-love? And is 
not that lovely child in imminent peril? Do not our he¬ 
reditary inclinations hold us in their grasp, like the folds 
of the serpent about the body of Laocoon ? But for the 
countless and constant mercies of Infinite Love, our spir¬ 
itual life would be crushed and destroyed. 

OUR SELFISH LIFE. 

Indeed, how hard we try, in our days of folly, to give 
full control to the natural mind, and to forget that heav¬ 
enly order, and truly human life, are in the submission 
of the external to the internal, the natural to the spiritual, 
the servant to the master. 

How tired we grow, in the work of serving the Master 
first; and how tired we are, in waiting for the time when 
the natural mind can sit down to its own meat. And, in¬ 
deed, how little we recognize the help we could give to 
each other, towards coming into the heavenly order, if we 
would only a6I more from a regenerating spirit, and less 
from our envious natural feelings. 

POSSIBILITIES. 

Every human being, man, woman, or child, no matter 
what his or her condition, ought to be intensely interest¬ 
ing to us. In every person, we should see but a human 
soul, struggling in the grasp of a demon. And we should 


The Unprofitable Servant. 


493 


throw our influence, our affe&ion, and our help, on the 
side of the human part, and against the demon. 

But, how little we meet each other on this plane. The 
peculiarities, the looks, the clothing, all the externals of 
others, take up too much of our attention. We may see, 
in another, only the brutal side, while, within all that, 
there is a little babe of regenerate life, just awaking to the 
beginnings of conscious existence. And each one of us 
has it in his power to do something towards the develop¬ 
ment, or the discouragement, of that struggling heavenly 
babe. 


SPIRITUAL PURPOSES. 

Would that we had the manly courage always to work 
for spiritual ends* even in the externals of our life. The 
great trouble with most men, to-day, is that they do not 
elevate their minds, to see things in spiritual light; but 
are in the habit of regarding everything, even religion, in 
a crude external way, and from the senses. But every 
external thing should be associated with its inward life. 
We should value the external because of its connexion 
with its internal. 


ILLUSTRATION. 

For instance : what draws your heart and your thought 
towards a dear little child who has gone before you to the 
heavens, more than his little shoe, carrying in its familiar 
outlines, the form of the little foot that once filled it? 
And yet, of all the things associated with the form of 
your dear little child, his shoe is the most external, and 
it belonged to the lowest and least important part of his 
body. 

But, when the empty shoe lies before you, memory 
and affe&ion seem to bring back the whole form of the 
loved one, to take his place. The little foot seems to re- 


494 


Parables of the New Testament. 


turn to the empty shoe; and, with the foot, comes the 
entire form. And, in fa<5l, what is the bodily form, but 
the external of the real child, the soul, that you love? 

During the life of your little boy, on earth, how care¬ 
fully and tenderly you provided proper shoes for his little 
feet, that they might not cause him pain. And did you 
not as carefully, and as tenderly, try to lead him into such 
externals of feeling, thought and condudt, as would prop¬ 
erly serve his opening spirit, without injury to its grow¬ 
ing life ? Did you not remember that all things that this 
outward world can afford your child, are, to his human 
spirit, only what the shoes are to the feet that fill them? 
They are externals, but important, as serving, or restrain¬ 
ing, the growing spirit, within. 


The Unjust Judge. 


495 


XXXVII. 

€fjc &nju$t 

(LUKE XVIII. 1-8.) 

PERSISTENT PRAYER. 


SUMMARY. 

Persistent effort to attain regeneration will finally succeed. 
And so, he who is seeking regeneration needs to keep his 
spiritual mind always open to the Lord’s influences, in spite 
of the opposition of his natural mind. Even when false 
principles hold control of the natural thought, an earnest 
desire of the heart, longing for truth, will always succeed in 
gaining such truth as the man is willing to use in his daily 
life. In His Divine Truth, the Lord is always present with 
all men who seek Him, and according to their mental con¬ 
dition ; and He always delivers them from their spiritual 
enemies, as soon as they are in condition to enter into regen¬ 
erate life. 


THE MORAL. 

Generally, in the parables of the Scriptures, we gather 
the moral of the story at the close of the parable; but, it is 
noticeable that, in the parable before us, and in the other par¬ 
able in the same chapter, the moral is stated just before the 
story. And so it is not at all difficult to enter into the nat¬ 
ural lesson of this parable, when the key has been left in the 
door. Parables are natural pictures, illustrating spiritual 
truths. In each case, the pi&ure is painted with a pre-exist- 



496 


Parables of the New Testament. 


ing purpose. And the details of the pidture are arranged 
according to the necessities of the case. 

THE LITERAL SENSE. 

For instance; in this parable, the purpose is to illustrate 
the need of earnest and persistent effort to attain regener¬ 
ation. In the natural pidture, the point is the persevering 
importunity, which will not be put off. 

It seems hard to make any comparison between the Lord 
and an unjust judge; for the Lord is always just, and always 
merciful, and always seeking to bless men. But the neces¬ 
sities of the case required the use of a bad judge, to form 
the intended pidture. A good and just judge, doing prompt 
justice, would not have presented the necessary elements. 
It was necessary to show the case of a person who eagerly, 
repeatedly, and, for a time, vainly, sought justice; and none 
but an unrighteous judge would have repeatedly refused to 
do justice. 


THE APPEARANCE. 

And the real charadter of such a judge is such as the un¬ 
regenerate natural man imagines to be the charadter of the 
Lord. To those who wait long and wearily, for justice to be 
done to them, and for relief from daily trials, the Lord seems 
to be indifferent, and even unjust, because He does not 
sooner answer their prayers. And when the Lord seems to 
take no notice of them, they are tempted to cease praying, 
as if prayer was of no pradtical use. They do not know 
that the Lord is more desirous to bless them than they are 
to be blessed; nor that the cause of the delay is in them¬ 
selves, in their own unreceptive condition of heart and life. 

* 

THE DELAY. 

It is not intended that men shall have whatever they 
think they want, merely for the superficial asking. And so 


The Unjust Judge. 


497 


we find this element of apparent Divine delay in answering 
prayer, in many cases, in the Scriptures. But the fa6t is, 
that the Lord cannot give a man spirituality of chara&er, 
until the man is prepared to receive it, by reformation in the 
life. And the Lord cannot give any man spiritual blessings, 
except as the man comes into spirituality of character. It is 
charadter, and not circumstance, which opens men to heav¬ 
enly blessings. 


THE PICTURE. 

The parable is only a picture, a representative. Spirit¬ 
ually, the scene is laid in the mind of every man, in the be¬ 
ginning of his career towards regeneration. We have both 
the judge and the widow in our own minds. And, if we are 
earnest and persistent, the Lord will compel our judge to do 
justice to our widow. 


THE LESSON. 

Literally, the natural lesson of the parable is this: if, by 
earnest, persistent importunity, a cold-hearted, indifferent 
man can be won over to the cause of justice, how much more 
we can be sure that the Lord, who is a just judge, will always 
do us justice, even when He seems to forget us. And, from 
this lesson, it follows that we are to be patient and persever¬ 
ing, knowing that there is sufficient reason for any apparent 
delay of Divine aid. 

These truths apply to us, individually, and to the Church, 
collectively. Though the New-Church is struggling against 
many persecutions, yet the Lord is building up the Church, 
as fully and as rapidly as the characters and lives of its mem¬ 
bers will permit. And if we are impatient as to the results, 
our remedy lies in greater personal devotion to the prin¬ 
ciples of the Church, in our own hearts, understandings and 
lives. “ The Lord will give grace and glory; no good will 
He withhold from them that walk uprightly.” The promise 


498 Parables of the New Testament. 

is made to us, as it was to Israel, “ Every place whereon the 
soles of your feet shall tread, shall be yours.” No one can 
take away from us the blessings of any spiritual principle 
that we have actually walked upon. Our lesson is to wait 
for the Lord, but to work while waiting; and to trust in the 
Lord; knowing that the cause of our waiting is the need of 
greater work, in ourselves. 

ALWAYS PRAYING. 

‘‘And He spake a parable unto them, that men ought 
always to pray, and not to faint.” We cannot, of course, 
expe<5t to be always in the outward a61 and attitude of prayer; 
for, in such case, we should not have time or opportunity 
to perform our uses. But a man can be, if he will, always in 
a prayerful state of mind, open to the heavens, acknowledg¬ 
ing his evil tendencies, and ready to hear, and to receive, 
what the Lord has to give. If a man keeps his mind always 
open to heavenly influences, he will always be in a state of 
inward worship, the worship of love and acknowledgment. 
There will always be, in his heart, “a fire burning upon the 
altar.” And the man will be full of vigorous spiritual life. 
For the most persistent, and the most efficient, of all prayers, 
is that of the daily life. 


FAINTING. 

But, if the man grows indifferent to heavenly things, and 
allows the clamor of the world to shut out the voices of the 
heavens, his spiritual life will grow “faint” and inactive. As 
our bodies need their daily supply of food, so do our spirits. 
He who knows the chara<5Ier of the Lord, and the nature of 
man, and the true nature and use of prayer, as a means of 
bringing men into states capable of receiving blessings from 
the Lord, will feel the need of his morning and evening 
prayer, and his daily family worship, with the reading of the 
Word of the Lord. He knows, by experience, how these 


The Unjust Judge . 


499 


seasons of looking upward, strengthen him for both the com¬ 
mon things, and the emergencies, of daily life in the world. 

THE JUDGE. 

In our minds, the “judge” is the rational principle, the 
thinking faculty, which hears, compares, refle&s, and decides, 
as to the things which come to the thought. Of course, in 
an unregenerate man, the rational faculty, itself, will be un¬ 
regenerate ; for all parts of the mind need to be regenerated. 
So, the unregenerate .natural man thinks and reasons from 
his own standpoint, which is sensuous and selfish. He loves 
himself; and he loves the world, in so far as it caters to his 
self-love. His rational faculty being open to the world, and 
closed to heaven, thinks in worldly light, which is spiritual 
darkness. It is an unjust judge; it does not fear God, nor 
regard men ; it is not moved by heavenly principles of love, 
nor by acknowledged rules of human justice. False prin¬ 
ciples control its reasonings; and self-interest determines its 
adlion. 


FEARING GOD, AND REGARDING MEN. 

Speaking spiritually, the fear of God is the fear which 
accompanies love, the fear of loving evil and doing evil; not 
a fear of the Lord, but a fear of doing anything which is 
against God. And to regard man is to regard the principle 
of charity, or love to the neighbor, which embodies itself in 
doing good to men. So, in the regenerate man, the regen¬ 
erate rational faculty thinks in the spiritual light of heavenly 
truth ; and it does justice to men. And the Lord teaches us 
that, as we a<5t towards men, so we a£t towards Him. But 
it is said of the wicked, “there is no fear of God before his 
eyes.” 

THE CITY. 

The “city” in which the judge lived, is the do&rine in 


500 Parables of the New Testament 

which the mind dwells. Imagine the state of society, where 
the judges are unjust, or even indifferent to justice. Then, 
as we read in Isaiah, “Judgment is turned away backward, 
and justice standeth afar off, for truth is fallen in the streets, 
and equity cannot enter.” And, spiritually, a correspond¬ 
ing state of things exists in the unregenerate mind, whose 
rational faculty is employed in behalf of self-love, and indif¬ 
ferent to heavenly principles of life, fearing not God, nor re¬ 
garding man. 


THE WIDOW. 

The “widow,” dwelling in the same city, is the affection 
for truth, interested in the same do&rine. In the spiritual 
degree of life, characterized by truth, and represented by Is¬ 
rael, the husband represents the understanding of truth, and 
the wife represents the affeCtion for truth. The widow, be¬ 
reaved of her husband, represents the natural affeCtion for 
truth, not united to the understanding of truth, and thus 
being in a state of distress, deprived of her guide and 
helper. 

The parable pi<5lures a state of mind, in which the ra¬ 
tional faculty is in the darkness of false principles, and in the 
light of the world; while there is, in the same mind, some 
love of truth, which seeks and desires the light of truth ; but 
which cannot, at present, receive any satisfaction, because the 
reasoning faculty is tied down to the false and sensuous 
ideas of selfish life, and it will not listen to the distressed cry 
of affeCtion, for more light. 

This affeCtion for truth, represented by the widow, ex- 
peCts the rational faculty, as the appointed judge, to do 
justice; to free the natural affeCtions from all the mental ad¬ 
versaries that persecute it, all the doubts, etc., and all the 
wrong states of contrary feeling. 


The Unjust Judge. 


501 


SEEKING JUSTICE. 

And so the widow “came to the judge,” seeking justice. 
Literally, she “came often to him, saying, Avenge me of 
mine adversary,” or “ Do me justice of mine adversary.” 
She was not seeking revenge, but merely asking her rights, 
when some one had defrauded her. When our natural af¬ 
fection for truth is persecuted by evil, as it must be, when our 
charadder is a mixed one, we look to our rational faculty to 
deliver us, by judging what is true and good, and by help¬ 
ing us to put away evil and false things. Evil is an adver¬ 
sary to our minds, as disease is an adversary to our bodies. 

But, as long as our natural evils engage the attention of 
our reasoning faculty, the latter will be under control of false 
principles ; and it will be unwilling to take sides with our love 
of truth. Then our minds will be in a divided state, our 
love of truth desiring to secure the truth, and our natural 
self-love unwilling to release our reason from its control. 

THE JUDGE UNWILLING. 

So, when the widow applied to the judge, for justice, “ He 
was unwilling for a while ;” etc. But, what the unjust judge 
was not willing to do from good principle, he was com¬ 
pelled to do from policy. It is the tendency of despotic 
rulers, moved by self-will and caprice, rather than by fixed 
laws, to cultivate among the people a dependence upon the 
favors of the rulers, rather than upon right and justice. In 
Oriental lands, under despotic government, beggars were 
numerous and clamorous. So, too, crowds assembled, and 
clamored for some favor which had been denied them ; and 
the annoyance of their continued clamor often brought them 
success. 


THE JUDGE COMPELLED. 

So, in the natural mind, when the afiedion for truth is 


502 


Parables of the New Testament. 


earnestly persistent in clamoring for light, the indifferent or 
indolent reasoning faculty, is finally aroused to activity. 
The thought arises, that this eager natural love of truth is 
determined to find the truth; and so, after all, it will be less 
troublesome to give way to it, than to continue to resist its 
importunities. 


POLICY AND PRINCIPLE. 


t 


Thus, policy often urges a man to find the truth, for the 
practical use of his better affeCtions. For the man who is 
beginning to be regenerated is divided in mind. The Lord 
is operating upon his affeCtions, and urging them to follow 
the truth. And so his affeCtions urge his reasoning faculty 
to set to work, to grasp the genuine truth, so that his doubts, 
and the persecutions of evil spirits, may be driven out. 

And, as the reasoning faculty itself comes under the in¬ 
fluence of Divine Truth, the Lord operates upon it, to regem 
erate it: and then it will work from good principle, and no 
longer from policy. Thus, even if false principles hold our 
rational faculty, still, if we have some love of truth, we shall 
gradually be led to see that our false views are not true; and 
then we shall rejeCt them. Every earnest, persistent desire 
for truth, will finally obtain the truth, even though it may 
have to struggle long and hard, against natural false notions, 
and a natural tendency to worldiness. 


HEARING THE JUDGE. 

“ Hear what the unjust judge saith i. e ., we need to 
consider this state of things in our natural mind and life, and 
to recognize the faCt that no man naturally thinks in the 
spiritual light of truth, but in the outward light of the world 
and of the senses; that no man is, at first, truly rational, but 
that he must become so, through regeneration; and that we 
must expeCt our natural rational faculty to be indifferent, and 
even opposed to seeking the light of heaven, when urged by 


503 


The Unjust Judge. 

our affe&ions, under the influence of the Lord. And our af¬ 
fections cannot be purified, except through the truth, known, 
loved and practised. 

REPRESENTATIVE LAWS. 

The Laws given to Israel included many warnings to men 
against unrighteous judgment, and against oppressing wid¬ 
ows. And all these laws spiritually apply to us, to-day, 
warning us not to allow our rational faculty to reason on the 
side of evil and falsity, and against good and truth; and es¬ 
pecially, not to oppress and persecute the growing love of 
truth, which our Lord is filling with an earnest desire for 
spiritual life. 


THE JUST JUDGE. 

The rational faculty, like a just judge, should judge right¬ 
eously and fearlessly between the different principles of the 
mind, % all the different kinds of affe<5fion and thought; giving 
to each its proper place, and its full liberty to do its duty; 
encouraging every good affection and true thought, and cast¬ 
ing out every evil feeling and false thought. 

IMPOSITION. 

As the widow, bereaved of her natural prote&or and 
guide, was peculiarly liable to be imposed upon, and de¬ 
frauded, by unscrupulous persons; so our affediion for truth, 
deprived of its guide, the understanding of truth, is especially 
liable to be imposed upon by evil influences. And, as the 
poor widow, unable to procure sufficient social influence to 
compel justice at the hands of the judge, or money enough 
to bribe him, was apparently powerless before him, so, when 
our natural minds are without the understanding of truth, 
our affection for truth seems powerless to overcome the in¬ 
difference of the indolent rational faculty. 


504 


Parables of the New Testament. 


FINAL SUCCESS. 

And, yet, as the widow’s importunity finally accom¬ 
plished what was not yielded in obedience to love of God or 
justice to men ; so we may find encouragement in the thought 
that however dark spiritual things may seem to us, and how¬ 
ever much our rational faculty may be disinclined to work for 
our love of truth, still, if we have some love for the truth, 
and some eager longing to find the truth, and to use it in 
our daily life, we shall finally obtain all the truth that we are 
ready to put into pradtice. 

THE DELAYS OUR OWN. 

And, while there may seem to be unnecessary delay, the 
simple fa<T is, that the Lord has been waiting for us to be¬ 
come inwardly and heartily ready for the truth. For we 
often hold truths as sentiments, long before we are ready to 
yield them full obedience, as principles of our daily life. 
And, in His tender mercy, our Lord protects us from too 
full an understanding of truths which we would not yet heart¬ 
ily adopt. 


THE ELECT CRYING. 

“Shall not God avenge His own ele<5t?” God’s “ele<5t” 
are those who ele<5f, or choose, to love and obey Him. 
These “cry to Him day and night;” i. e ., in states of en¬ 
lightenment, and in states of darkness and doubt. Thus, in 
every state of mind and life, they acknowledge the Lord, and 
look to Him for direction and strength. There are mental 
nights in our life, when we cannot see the light of truth, and 
when we may imagine that our Lord is not doing all He can 
for us. 

But, if we keep His commandments, He will deliver us 
from all adversaries, as fast as we are ready, even when our 
“foes are those of our own [mental] household,” our own evil 


The U?ijust Judge. 


505 


feelings and false thoughts. He will compel even our own 
unjust judge to do us justice ; He will finally regenerate our 
rational faculty, so that it shall see and know the heavenly 
truth. 


BEARING WITH THEM. 

The common translation reads, “though He bear long 
with them,” as if He was the one who bears the trouble. 
The literal meaning is that He makes them bear a long trial, 
and He bears it, with them. But, truly, the Lord is bearing 
with them, and bearing their natural evils and falses, even 
when they think they are bearing the persecutions of 
others. 

At one time, during a storm, the disciples thought Jesus 
■was indifferent to their peril; and they called Him, saying, 
“Carest Thou not, that we perish?” Then He rebuked the 
wind and the sea, and saved His disciples. The Lord leads 
us towards permanent good; and we need to wait and work, 
before we can attain such good. All apparent delay of the 
Lord is, really, our delay to come up to the full measure of 
spiritual manhood. 


ILLUSTRATION. 

See two families, living as neighbors. In one, the par¬ 
ents indulge their children, and have not sufficient strength 
of chara<5!er to say, No, when No is needed. In the other 
family, the parents are conscientious in training their 
children in chara&er. They often deny the requests of their 
children. Now, which family will be better prepared for the 
battle of life? And which parents have genuine love for 
their children? Undoubtedly, the striker parents have a 
higher quality of love. They bear the trial, themselves, to 
save their children ; while the weaker parents, being selfish, 
love their children as parts of themselves, and indulge them 
as they indulge themselves. And they weakly make it easy 


506 


Parables of the Neiu Testament. 


for themselves, and allow their children to grow up to far 
greater trials than home discipline, and trials which such dis¬ 
cipline would have avoided. 

But the Lord, like the wise parents, often says, No, to 
His children, because He sees it is not best for them to have 
what they want, and as they want it. He trains for charac¬ 
ter. We need not be discouraged, when things move slowly, 
for the Divine Providence always works as rapidly as it can 
work well. The Lord is in every good desire; and He will 
carry it to success, if we do our part, by resisting our evil in¬ 
clinations, and keeping His commandments. Patience de¬ 
velops the best traits of our character, and modifies our nat¬ 
ural ambition. If there were no hunger and thirst, our food 
and drink would be insipid to us. 

DIVINE METHODS. 

Again, we are apt to forget that, in waiting, our Lord is 
looking not only to our redress, but also to the good of our 
persecutors; and further patience on our part may be the 
very means which our Lord will use to reform our oppres¬ 
sors. And this is true, both naturally and spiritually. That 
the Lord will avenge His ele6t«f‘speedily,” means surely. 
There is no time in spiritual things ; and the idea of working 
quickly, changes to that of working certainly. 

“Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall He 
find faith on the earth?” This question is put, because the 
quality of our faith will be shown in our prayers, from the 
heart and understanding, and in the life. We need to take 
heed to the condition of our minds and lives, so that, when 
the Divine truth comes, we may be in a state to receive it. 

THE lord’s SECOND COMING. 

These are the days of the coming of the Lord, in a spirit¬ 
ual coming of Divine Truth to the minds of men. But how 
is this truth received? How much faith and charity are 


The Unjust Judge. 


507. 


there, in the world? '‘The love of many [has waxed] cold.” 
Few have any vigorous faith in the Divine character and per¬ 
sonality of the Lord, Jesus Christ, the one, only God, or in 
the absolutely Divine character of the Word of God. Men 
are outgrowing the old ideas of the so-called Orthodox the¬ 
ology; and they need new phases of truth, or they will have 
no truth. And a New-Church has begun, in which the Lord 
is known in His true character, and in which His Word is 
open, in its inward and spiritual sense. This New-Church, 
the Church of the New-Jerusalem, the Lord is establishing 
in the hearts, understandings and lives of those who are pre¬ 
pared to receive its Divine principles. And though it may 
long struggle against evils and falses, among its people, and 
in its opponents, it will finally prevail, individually and col¬ 
lectively. And towards this grand result, our Lord’s own 
message tells us, “that men ought always to pray, and not 
to faint.’* 


Parables of the New Testament 


50b 


XXXVIII. 

€f)e JtMjariscc anD ttjc publican. 

(LUKE XVIII. 9-14.) 

SELF-RIGHTEO USNESS. 


SUMMARY. 

The repentant sinner is in better spiritual condition than 
the self-righteous boaster. A moral outward life may be 
united with an evil heart. The parable is not figurative, but 
practical; its lessons are not taught by allegory, but by ex¬ 
amples. We are told that the parable is given as a rebuke 
to self-righteousness. 


PHARISEES. 

The Pharisees were a sect of the Jews, very strict in out¬ 
ward forms and ceremonies of religion; but many of them 
were self-righteous, despising others, and holding themselves 
aloof from others, as holier. They represent minds of the 
same character, very scrupulous in externals, but inwardly 
evil. The Lord’s characterization of them is found, espe¬ 
cially, in Matthew xxiii., where He speaks of “scribes and 
Pharisees, hypocrites.” 


PUBLICANS. 

Publicans were collectors of the Roman tax, levied upon 
the Jews by their conquerors. These publicans, generally 
Jews, were held in great contempt, and regarded as apos- 



The Pharisee and the Publica?i. 


509 


tates and traitors. In the text, the humble publican repre¬ 
sents a humble state of mind, in which the man does not 
exalt himself. 


TEMPLE. PRAYER, ETC. 

Going up to the temple, to pray, is, spiritually, speaking 
to the Lord, in our hearts. Prayer is the opening of our 
inward mind to the Lord. The Pharisee stood by himself, 
and prayed. He felt superior to others, and so, practically, 
and in aCt, and sometimes, even in word, he said to others, 
“ Stand by thyself: come not near to me, for I am holier 
than thou.” Mentally, he chose the chief seat for himself. 
Under the pretence of thanking the Lord, he boasted of his 
own supposed goodness, and he despised others. 

EVILS IN THE HEART. 

But the Lord teaches us that evils are in the will, or heart; 
and that a man may be a great sinner even while he has no 
opportunity to express his evils in outward aCts of wrong¬ 
doing. “He flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his 
iniquity be found to be hateful.” 

If a good man is forced to see that he has some advan¬ 
tages that many others have not, he does not exalt himself, 
on this account; but he exalts the Lord; and he tries to let 
his light so shine that men will see his good works, and be 
led to the Lord, by them. 

The Pharisee boasts of his character, and of his pious aCts. 
He imagines that he is striCtly religious: and yet, while he 
piously pays tithes of outward things, Jesus tells us that the 
Pharisees omit to pay “ the weightier matters of the law, judg¬ 
ment, mercy and faith.” 

THE PHARISEE’S PRAYER. 

The charaCler of the Pharisee’s prayer is remarkable: it 


510 Parables of the New Testament . 

contains no acknowledgment of sin, and no supplication for 
help. He does not feel any need of repentance, or of Divine 
assistance. He is very self-complacent. But, while he sees 
no evil in himself, he has a keen eye for the sins of others. 
And he seeks to exalt himself by depreciating others. 

DESPISING OTHERS. 

The noble soul believes in noble men ; but the crafty man 
is always suspicious of the motives of others. The corrupt 
woman never believes in the virtue of any man. Thus, in 
our estimate of others, we very often reflect the quality of 
our own motives. The Pharisees regarded Jesus as corrupt 
because He associated with sinners. They had no appre¬ 
ciation of the quality of His love, or of His motives, in deal¬ 
ing with men. We comprehend the Lord as we approach 
Him in character. 

And, if a man is a sinner, we need to pity and to help 
him, and not to separate ourselves from him, in contempt. 
Every man is capable of regeneration : and he needs aid to¬ 
wards this end. Perhaps, before he fell into sin, he resisted 
more evil tendencies than we would have resisted, if we had 
been as severely tempted. 

Self-righteousness is one of the most malignant forms of 
evil, and one of the most difficult to overcome. Those who 
selfishly imagine themselves to be saints, and who expedl to 
claim a higher position in heaven, will find themselves utterly 
unable to appreciate a heavenly condition of life, and ut¬ 
terly unwilling to live in heaven. 

Whenever you find a man despising others, you find a 
man essentially evil. And, if he seems to be righteous, his 
righteousness is outward and superficial, and not in the heart. 
The good man hates evil, especially in himself; but he does 
not hate the sinner, nor despise him. He separates the sin¬ 
ner from his sin. But the external and self-exalting man 
does not separate the sinner from his sin; and he despises 
evils in others, but not in himself. 


The Pharisee arid the Publica?i. 


5ii 


THE PUBLICAN. 

How different the condition of the publican. Accus¬ 
tomed to being despised and ill-treated, he stands afar off 
from the inner temple, and feels unworthy to draw nearer. 
He takes a timid and humble position. And he will “not 
lift up so much as his eyes to heaven.” He feels humbled 
by a sense of his guilt and unworthiness. 

Spiritually, the publican represents a mind that is not 
well instru<5fed in truth, and which feels unprepared to ele¬ 
vate the understanding to high views of truth; but which 
acknowledges its unfaithfulness to the Divine command¬ 
ments. “Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that 
I am not able to look up.” “O Lord, righteousness'belong- 
eth unto Thee, but unto us confusion of faces.” 

SMITING HIS BREAST. 

The publican “smote upon his breast,” to indicate the 
origin of his evils, in his own heart; and his condemnation 
of these evils; as well as his intended opposition to them. 
He made no boast of any goodness, but freely acknowledged 
himself to be a sinner. And he offered no excuse, and at¬ 
tempted no justification. And he censured no one else. He 
simply exclaimed, “ God be merciful to me, a sinner;” thus 
acknowledging his dependence upon the Lord. He abases 
himself, and exalts the Lord. The self-righteous Pharisee 
exalts himself, and does not feel his need of any further aid 
from the Lord. But the repentant publican feels the spirit 
of the prayer, “ Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, 
for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified.” “Thou 
desirest not sacrifice, else would I give; Thou delightest not 
in burnt-offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; 
a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not de¬ 
spise.” 


5*2 


Parables of the New Testament 


HOUSE. JUSTIFIED. 

And so our Lord tells us, “This man went down to his 
house justified, rather than the other.” The house of the 
mind is the will. As evils begin in the will, so, if we set our 
will against our natural evils, and determine to seek regener¬ 
ation, we shall finally be “justified,” or made jusi, or right¬ 
eous, in heart and in life. A man goes down from the tem¬ 
ple to his house, when he comes down from his inward spirit 
to his natural mind, where, pradfically, his work is to be 
done. In contrast, a man’s inward will is the house of God, 
and his natural will is the man’s own house, on earth. 

The penitent publican, having, in his inward will, met the 
Lord, and acknowledged his evils, can afterwards go down 
into his natural mind and life, and carry an abiding sense of 
the Lord’s mercy and truth, which shall make his condu<5t 
just; for, after a time, it shall be said that, in him, “ Mercy 
and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have 
kissed each other.” He will be justified in the Lord’s sight, 
although he may not be so in his own sight; for he will 
carry, at the same time, an abiding sense of his own un¬ 
worthiness. He will ascribe to the Lord all the good that 
he does. 


NOT JUSTIFIED. 

But the Pharisee, not admitting any need of reformation, 
will not be justified, or made just; because he will make no 
effort to put away his secret evils. He will regard himself 
as first; and yet, really, he will be last, in the estimation of 
heaven. “ Except your righteousness shall exceed the right¬ 
eousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter 
into the kingdom of heaven.” “Woe unto you, scribes and 
Pharisees, hypocrites; for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, 
which, indeed, appear beautiful outwardly, but, within, are 
full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so, 
ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but, within, 


The Pharisee and the Publican . 513 

ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.” In the beginning of 
our journey of regeneration, we have both the Pharisee and 
the publican in our own mind; both the self-righteousness 
and the humility. And the work of regeneration expels 
the former, and develops the latter. 

SELF-EXALTATION. 

The parable is summed up in the practical statement of 
a principle: “ For everyone who exalteth himself shall be 
abased ; and he who humbleth himself shall be exalted.” It 
is meant, of course, that he shall feel humble, and not that 
he shall outwardly humble himself, for the purpose of being 
exalted hereafter. He who exalts himself sets his own will, 
and understanding, and prudence, above, or equal to, the 
Lord’s good, and truth, and providence. And, in doing this, 
he actually abases himself, or sinks himself into a spiritually 
low condition. 

The Lord does not put him down, as a penalty for sin, 
but he puts himself down, in charadler. He adopts a low 
standard of charadler. But he who subje&s his own will and 
understanding to the Divine will, and to the Divine Truth, 
and who lives by the Lord’s commandments, adopts a high 
spiritual standard of life ; and he becomes exalted in charac¬ 
ter. Sins that we do not confess and repent of, remain with 
us : but the sins that we sincerely confess, and repent of, and 
cease to do, fall from us, as we journey away from the state 
of character in which they were committed. 

There is no evil more vigorously condemned by the Lord 
than the spirit of self-exaltation. And, to show the spirit of 
humility, the Lord said to His self-seeking disciples, “ Who¬ 
soever shall humble himself, as this little child, the same is 
greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” 

ILLUSTRATION. 

There is a Persian story, which illustrates the two prin- 


514 Parables of the New Testament. 

ciples of self-exaltation and humility. According to this 
story, “Jesus, while on earth, was once entertained in the cell 
of a monk of eminent reputation for san&ity. In the same 
city dwelt a youth, sunk in every sin. . . He, appearing be¬ 
fore the cell of the monk, as smitten by the very presence of 
the Divine Prophet, began to lament deeply the wickedness 
of his past life; and shedding abundant tears, to implore par¬ 
don and grace. The monk indignantly interrupted him, de¬ 
manding how he dared to appear in his presence, and in that 
of God’s holy prophet; assured him that, for him, it was in 
vain to seek forgiveness. And, in proof of how he (the 
monk) considered the sinner’s lot was inexorably fixed for 
hell, he exclaimed, ‘My God, grant me but one thing, that 
I may stand far from this man on the judgment-day.’ On 
this Jesus spoke: ‘ It shall be even so; the prayer of oach is 
granted. The sinner has sought mercy and grace, and has 
not sought them in vain; his sins are forgiven; his place 
shall be in heaven, at the last day. But this monk has 
prayed that he may never stand near this sinner; his prayer, 
too, is granted; hell shall be his place, for there this sinner 
shall never come.’ ” 


THE DIVINE HELP. 

Of himself a man is powerless to break off from evil; 
but repentance opens his mind to the Divine help, which the 
self-exalting man will not seek. What a man does from him¬ 
self is not genuine good ; it is tainted with self-merit. Angels 
acknowledge themselves incapable of any good, without the 
help and guidance of the Lord; but devils are unwilling to 
receive any heavenly good. And thus, when a man exalts 
himself, he practically abases himself, as an inevitable result 
of the laws of human life. 

We can clearly see how these laws operate. As a man 
draws his life from the Lord, through the heavens, he must 
be kept in connexion with the Lord. And the more full and 
open this connexion is, the more full and perfedf is the man’s 


The Pharisee and the Publica?i. 515 

life. Every interruption of this connexion is an obstruction 
of the inflow of Divine blessings. Everything in the man 
that looks to self, incapacitates him for receiving heavenly 
life, and corrupts the character of the life that comes to him. 
The man is simply a vessel, receptive of life from the Lord. 
But he is a conscious vessel, with ability to receive in its in¬ 
tegrity, or to corrupt, the inflowing life. 

HUMAN SPHERES. 

Every man has his characteristic quality, or character, 
from his ruling-love. That quality pervades the whole man, 
and projects itself from the man, in all his activities. It sur¬ 
rounds, or encompasses him, with a sort of atmosphere, 
which we call his sphere. So the rose, and the noxious 
weed, have their characteristic spheres, by which we know 
them. The dog follows his master by the master’s sphere, 
as made known to the dog’s acute sense of smell. Our 
spheres are .both spiritual and natural. Everything that ap¬ 
proaches a man meets his sphere. When the Lord sends 
the very life of heaven to a man, that life cannot enter into 
the man, except by passing through the man’s own sphere. 
And that sphere influences the quality of the inflowing 
stream, as the corrupt dead body of a beast changes the 
quality of the pure rain that falls into it. 

RECEPTION OF LIFE. 

Thus, though the same quality of heavenly life flows 
from the Lord, to all men, yet no two men receive that life 
alike; each, in receiving it, changes it to his own quality. A 
devil, filled and encompassed with the sphere of the hells, 
changes the Lord’s blessings into curses, by corrupting good 
into evil. Yet, that life, which, in the devils, becomes infer¬ 
nal, was heavenly when the Lord sent it forth. What the 
Lord gives in purity, the man absorbs into his own impurity. 
Hence, the Lord cannot give heaven to the devils, because 


516 Parables of the New Testament. 

they will not receive it, as heaven ; the dense sphere of their 
own evils suffocates and corrupts all good and truth, as the 
noxious gases of a pit corrupt the quality of the purest at¬ 
mosphere that seeks to descend into it. “Your iniquities 
have separated between you and your God, and your sins 
have hid His face from you.” 

The Lord cannot dwell in our evils, but only in His own 
good and truth, received by us. The Lord says, “I dwell 
in the high and holy, with him also that is of a contrite and 
humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to re¬ 
vive the heart of the contrite ones.” But self-exaltation 
creates a dense sphere of selfishness and evil, which no heav¬ 
enly principle, as such, can penetrate. But humility softens 
a man’s sphere, and lets in the Divine sunlight, carrying the 
influences of heaven to the hungering and thirsting soul. 
And then the humble man realizes the fa<5t that he does not 
do good, and know truth, from any power inherent in him¬ 
self, but by the inflowing Divine life, momentarily sustain¬ 
ing him. The penitent and humble man sees the difference 
between his own charadler and the Lord’s charadler. 

SINNING NOT NECESSARY. 

We do not mean that it is better for a man to sin, so that 
he can repent, and be humble. It is best never to sin. And 
any man who recognizes the character of his own hereditary 
tendencies, will have abundant occasion to repent of his evil 
feelings, and his false thoughts, even if he resists them, and 
does not allow them to break out into sins of a<Tion. But a 
man who has sinned, and repented, and reformed, is in better 
spiritual condition than if he had inwardly cherished evils, 
and had lived an outwardly moral life, and had never seen 
the need of repentance. For there is no man who does not 
need to repent, at some time. Salvation is not by works, 
nor by faith alone, but by and in love, faith and good works, 
done in the name of the Lord. 


The Pharisee and the Publican. 


5i7 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Sometimes, the Lord permits a man to fall into gross 
sins, because, otherwise, he will not see his evils, and will not 
repent. The penitent sinner is painfully conscious of his 
need of Divine help ; and so he seeks it, and opens his heart 
to it. But the self-righteous man feels no need of the Lord’s 
aid, and so he does not open himself to it. 

Humility sets up, in the man’s mind, a Jacob’s ladder, 
reaching up to the heavens and to the Lord, and enabling 
the ministering angels, as messengers from the Lord, to come 
down, and to lead the man, step by step, to higher condi¬ 
tions. Of such men it may be said, “ They go from strength 
to strength: every one of them appeareth before God in 
Zion.” 

When a man boasts of his own goodness, and denies that 
he has any evils, he adopts his evils as his own, and identi¬ 
fies them with himself. And thus there is no way in which 
his evils can be separated from him. But the humble man, 
confessing his sins, separates himself from them, repudiates 
them, and hates them. Thus, the Lord can approach him, 
and lead him away from his confessed sins. 

While the self-exalting man is boasting of his goodness, 
and calling his evils good, the humble man is crying, “ Search 
me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my 
thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me: and 
lead me in the way everlasting.” “Have mercy upon me, 
O God, according to Thy loving-kindness: according unto 
the multitude of Thy tender mercies, blot out my transgres¬ 
sions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse 
me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions; 
and my sin is ever before me.” 

EXTERNAL HUMILITY. GOOD WORKS. 

Evidence of a man’s humility is not to be found in his 
mere manner, but in his life. Hypocrites assume humility, 


518 Parables of the New Testament. 

to hide their purposes. Pious externals are not, in them¬ 
selves, religious: they are only the proper external expres¬ 
sion of corresponding inward principles: and, without the 
inward principles, the outward forms are dead. 

But, although man’s works are not good, except when 
done in the love and acknowledgment of the Lord, we must 
beware of going to the other extreme, in supposing that 
good works are not essential to salvation. Works alone will 
not save a man, but neither will faith alone: he must show 
his love and his faith in his good works, which are the work¬ 
ing out of good principles. Repentance, alone, does not 
save a man, but it turns him away from evil, and leads to 
good. The publican was not justified suddenly, or by his 
faith, but gradually, as he lived in love, faith and obedience 
to the Lord. 


ILLUSTRATION. 

A man in a raging fever often feels very strong, but his 
strength is that of disease. And when the fever abates, the 
patient feels weaker; but he is in better condition, and nearer 
recovery, than when in the false strength of the fever. So, 
the man who is in the spiritual fever of self-exalting strength 
is in worse condition than the man whose spiritual fever has 
left him, and who feels weak in his helplessness. 

CULTURE. 

And, on this subjedl, there is need of another warning ; 
viz., not to mistake external culture for regeneration. The 
most moral and elegant men may be the worst of men. 
Few things can compare with the serpent, in gracefulness of 
form and of motion ; and yet it is cold-blooded and low. It 
represents the life of the natural senses. The most gor¬ 
geously clad birds often have the most disagreeable voices; 
while birds of plainest plumage often have sweetest songs. 
So, merely outward culture of the senses often covers a char- 


The Pharisee and the Publican. 519 

after spiritually low and evil. Babylon, with all its vices, 
was the centre of culture. 

One especial danger of external culture is its tendency to 
despise others, who are without such culture. But “ God look- 
eth upon the heart.” The self-exalting spirit, feeling rich 
in its self-love, struts through the world, in miserable pride, 
deeming nothing too good for it, as “fools rush in, where 
angels fear to tread.” And yet it misses the best opportun¬ 
ities for spiritual life. But the humble soul, recognizing its 
own hereditary tendencies, and the mercy of the Lord, finds, 
even in the hardest circumstances, opportunity to grow in re¬ 
generation ; as the seed that falls upon a barren rock, where 
death seems to be inevitable, yet finds some little foothold for 
its first roots, and then sends forth longer and stronger roots, 
over the sides of the huge old rock, and taps the rich soil 
below : and, from this source of life, it flourishes like a cedar 
of Lebanon, even on a spot where a lichen would scarcely 
find a foothold. Truly, “No good will [the Lord] withhold 
from them that walk uprightly.” “And what doth the Lord 
require of thee, but to do jusdy, and to love mercy, and to 
walk humbly with thy God.” 


520 


Parables of the New Testament. 


XXXIX. 

€fjc 4&00& £l>cpl)etti. 

(JOHN X. I-l6.) 

THE DIVINE LOVE. 


THE SHEPHERD. 

Our Lord is the Divine Shepherd of men. The Divine 
Love leads us ; the Divine Wisdom teaches us ; and the Di¬ 
vine Power protects us. And this trinity of Divine qualities 
we see in our blessed Lord, Jesus Christ, the one, only God 
of heaven and earth ; one in Person, yet seen in different as¬ 
pects and manifestations, as Creator, Redeemer and Regen¬ 
erator ; the one Divine Shepherd over the whole human race. 
In the Old Testament, He is made known as Jehovah. “Je¬ 
hovah is my Shepherd: I shall not want.” And, in the New 
Testament, Jesus declares, “I am the good Shepherd.” 
Thus in this, and in many other instances, Jesus identifies 
Himself with Jehovah, the one, only God. “I and the 
Father are one.” “He that hath seen Me, hath seen the 
Father.” The coming of Jesus Christ was a fuller manifesta¬ 
tion to men, of the Divine Life, in its three aspe6ts, of Love, 
Wisdom and Power. Through Jesus Christ, as the Divine 
Shepherd, men are led into the heavenly sheep-fold, under 
the watchful care of the Divine Providence. 

SHEEP. 

In an exa< 5 t sense, sheep represent the principle of charity, 
or love to the neighbor. In a general sense, sheep repre- 



The Good Shepherd. 


52i 


sent all the good principles of affeClion, in the human mind. 
Personally, the Lord’s sheep are those who are open to re¬ 
ceive the Lord’s love and wisdom, and ready to embody 
these in their lives. 

THE SHEEP-FOLD, ETC. 

And the sheep-fold represents the Lord’s Church, in 
heaven; and also on earth, so far as the Church on earth is 
sincere, and obedient to the Lord. Thus, the sheep-fold is 
the Lord’s heavenly kingdom, including all persons who are 
in a heavenly condition, whether in the natural world or the 
spiritual world. Individually, our sheep-fold is in our own 
mind, when heavenly good and truth are there united in our 
regenerate life. In one sense, the sheep-fold is the celestial 
Church, in distinction from the spiritual Church, which is re¬ 
presented by a vineyard. The shepherd represents one who 
leads and teaches. A sincere leader and teacher is moved 
by a love of interior and spiritual life, and a love of helping 
others to develop their spiritual life. The flock are those 
who are led and taught. 


THE DOOR. 

Men are taught by truth, and led by love. But, as men 
must know truth, before they can love it, or obey it, so truth 
stands as a door to spiritual life : and the knowledge of spirit¬ 
ual truth is the door, or door-way, through which me enter 
into spiritual life. “ If thou wilt enter into life, keep the com¬ 
mandments.” But a man must first learn the command¬ 
ments, before he can keep them. And so, a knowledge of 
truth is the door through which a man is introduced to the 
life of truth. 

The Lord, as the Divine Truth, is the Divine Door of 
the sheep-fold. To enter into the sheep-fold, through the 
door, is to know the Lord; to go to Him, by means of His 
truth ; to acknowledge Him, in His Divine character; to be- 


522 • Parables of the New Testament. 

lieve in Him; to love Him ; and to obey Him. Those who 
approach the Lord, in His Divine Humanity, open them¬ 
selves to Him, and keep alive, in themselves, the principles 
of spiritual good and truth, represented by the sheep. 

The Oriental sheep-fold was an enclosure, walled with 
stone, or fenced with reeds, and having a door-way, which 
could be closed at night, and through which the shepherd 
came, in the morning, to lead out his sheep. But a thief, or 
a wolf, would “ climb up some other way.” 

THE PORTER. 

The porter, or watchman, stationed at the door of the 
sheep-fold, represents our rational faculty, our thinking abil¬ 
ity, which keeps watch over the door of our mind, and tests 
the chara< 5 ier of the things which seek to enter into *our 
affedtions and thoughts. If we love the Lord’s good and 
true principles of life, and if we are trusting in the Divine 
Providence, the revealed truths of our Lord’s Word are as 
doors to our minds. And, beside these known and accepted 
truths, our rational faculty stands, as a porter. Whatever 
enters into our minds by means of the door of acknowledged 
truth, is a shepherd; it is something that will lead and teach 
us in the way to heaven. 

SOME OTHER WAY. 

But all evil and false influences refuse to stand the test of 
the Divine Truth: they do not enter by the acknowledged 
door; but they try to “ climb up some other way,” to enter 
into our affedlions and thoughts in some improper way, as, 
for instance, through our sensuous passions and prejudices. 
Every thing that seeks to come to us otherwise than through 
the revealed truth, i. e., through what we know to be good, 
true and useful, is, spiritually, a thief and a robber, seeking 
to injure our souls. And whatever comes to us in “some 
other way,” seeking to influence us through our tendencies 


The Good Shepherd. 


523 


to evil, (our pride, our anger, our contempt of others, or any 
other infernal passion,) we can no more spiritually afford to 
entertain and heed, than the sheep can afford to welcome 
thieves, robbers and wolves, into the sheep-fold. And if we 
would remember this fa6t, we could save ourselves a great 
amount of struggle against the insinuating influences of the 
hells. 

Our Lord opens our inward minds, and enters into them, 
with His heavenly influences, by coming through the door 
of revealed and acknowledged truth, drawn from the Divine 
Word. We are, therefore, to expe< 5 t Divine aid, and the 
supply of spiritual life, through the truths of the Lord’s 
Word, and not from the many worldly and infernal influ¬ 
ences, which seek to climb up some other way, into our 
minds, and lives. “If they speak not according to this 
Word, it is because there is no light in them. ” 

THE SHEPHERD AND HIS SHEEP. 

In Oriental lands, the relation between the shepherd and 
the sheep is very intimate. Generally, the shepherd is the 
owner of the sheep, or one of the family of the owner. 
Pasturage is scattered, and has to be sought. The sheep 
often have to go a great distance for water. Wolves and 
other wild beasts are numerous and fierce. Thus, the sheep 
are used to depending upon the shepherd. 

NAMING THE SHEEP, ETC. 

The shepherd names his sheep, as we name our dogs, 
horses and cattle. And the sheep know their names, and 
know the voice of their shepherd. They have confidence in 
their shepherd; and they come at his call, and follow him, 
anywhere. So, the Lord’s sheep have confidence in their 
Divine Shepherd. And they hear His voice; i. e ., they re¬ 
cognize and obey His truths. “ He calleth His own sheep 
by name.” A name is given to designate a certain person. 


524 Parables of the New Testament. 

But, originally, persons were given names according to their 
qualities, or traits of charadler, as is still done among our 
North American Indians, and other nations. Names, then, 
represent qualities, for which the names are given. 

CALLING THE SHEEP. 

The Lord, as our Shepherd, calls His own sheep by 
name, when, by means of His truth, He reveals to men cer¬ 
tain qualities of spiritual life, which they need to attain and 
cultivate; and when He reveals to them their own states and 
qualities of spiritual life. The Lord, in His all-wise Provi¬ 
dence, adapts His teaching and His leading to the exadl 
conditions and qualities of each of His followers, at each step 
in the man’s life. Spiritually, He always calls each of His 
sheep by name; i. e ., in such a way that the Divine leading 
is always exa6Ily and momentarily adapted to the man’s 
spiritual condition, and to his needed progress. 

LEADING OUT AND PUTTING FORTH. 

And thus “ He leadeth them out,” from the understand¬ 
ing and love of good and true principles, to their practical 
application to daily life. And when the Lord “putteth forth 
His own sheep, He goeth before them i. e. y He does not 
drive them, by compulsion, as swine have to be driven, but 
He leads them, as sheep are led. And He does this by His 
own example of the good life that He led before men. Thus, 
they have the Lord always before them, in His example, as 
well as in His teaching. 

FOLLOWING THE SHEPHERD. 

“ And the sheep follow Him i. e ., being in the love of 
the Lord, and submitting their will to His, they keep His 
commandments, and abide in His love. They are protected 
by His Divine Providence. They follow Him in pra&ical 


The Good Shepherd. 


525 


life. They know His voice; i. e. y they understand His 
truths. Those who love to obey the truth are brought into 
condition to understand the truth. “Ye shall know the truth, 
and the truth shall make you free.” “If any man will do 
His will, he shall know of thp do&rine, whether it be of 
God.” 


ILLUSTRATION. 

When you are hungry and thirsty, you know what you 
want; and you recognize your food, when you see it. And 
you take it eagerly. No argument is necessary, to convince 
you of its charadler. So, spiritually, those “ who hunger and 
thirst after righteousness . . . shall be filled,” because they 
know what they want, and they recognize good and truth, 
when presented. They are open to heavenly principles, and 
immediately respond to them. They have an intuitive per¬ 
ception of the good quality of good, and of the truthfulness 
of truth : and this intuition is, to them, what instin6l is to the 
beast, a guide to its food, and a warning against what is un¬ 
suited to its use. 

The heart and understanding of the Lord’s sheep re¬ 
spond to good and true principles, as their eyes respond to 
the light, and their ears to sounds. Their love of the Lord, 
and their trustful following of Him, keep them in the inward 
recognition of spiritual principles. What they know, they 
know not by mere argument, nor by their natural senses, 
but from their hearts, in the “ self-evidencing reason of love.” 
The Lord’s spiritual sheep know the voice of a truth, because 
it teaches them to be like the Lord. 

On one occasion, when Jesus taught, “the people were 
astonished at His do&rine; for He taught them as one hav¬ 
ing authority, and not as the scribes.” The scribes taught 
dodlrines, upheld by the authority of men, and of tradition. 
But Jesus taught truth, by its own authority, and in its own 
spiritual light. And those whose eyes were prepared to see, 
easily saw the light of truth, in the Gospel of Christ. 


526 


Parables of the New Testament. 


THE STRANGER. 

The Lord’s sheep will not follow a stranger; for, spirit¬ 
ually, a stranger is one who is estranged from the Lord, and 
who is not a lover or a follower of the Lord. Abstractly, a 
stranger is a false principle, which is a stranger to the Di¬ 
vine Truth. Those who love and follow the Lord will not 
be led away by false persuasions and evil influences. They 
will shun and rejeCt such influences. Their intuitive repug¬ 
nance to evil and falsity will warn them of the presence of 
infernal influences. 

THE REPRESENTATION. 

It has sometimes been suggested that it was inappropri¬ 
ate to represent the Lord’s followers by such a timid, de¬ 
fenceless animal as a sheep ; and that it would be more nat¬ 
ural to use, as a representative of good men, some more 
powerful, self-confident beast. But such a suggestion is 
made in ignorance of the nature of correspondence and sym¬ 
bolism. The proud, powerful, self-confident, fighting beast, 
feeling able to take care of itself, represents our selfish, un¬ 
regenerate state of mind, when we do not feel the need of 
any Saviour. But the helplessness of the sheep, inducing 
him to seek a leader, fitly represents the regenerate man, who 
feels his own inability to save himself, and his need of a Di¬ 
vine Leader. And the gentle, docile, affectionate character 
of the sheep truly represents the changed character of the 
regenerate man. 

The parable was spoken to the multitude, including some 
of the Pharisees: no wonder, then, that they did not under¬ 
stand it. And Jesus further taught them. He said plainly, 
“ I am the door of the sheep.” As the Divine Truth, He is 
the door, leading to the Divine Love, which is the shepherd, 
and to the sheep-fold, which is His Church, and heaven. 


The Good Shepherd. 


527 


THIEVES AND ROBBERS. 

“ All that ever came before Me are thieves and robbers 
not literally, as to worldly times and persons. The Lord 
did not condemn all previous teachers and leaders. Spirit¬ 
ually speaking, all that ever came before the Lord, are all 
who put themselves before the Lord, in importance; all who 
exalt themselves above the revealed truth of the Divine 
Word; all who feel able to know truth from their own abil¬ 
ity, and without revelation. 

Speaking abstractly, all evil and false principles put 
themselves before the Lord, and exalt themselves above 
Him. These are, spiritually, thieves, claiming truth as their 
own, and stealing it from the Lord. And they are robbers, 
claiming good as their own, and separating it from the Lord. 
No man can receive good and truth, as such, unless he re¬ 
ceives them from the Lord, and as Divine things. Sepa¬ 
rated from the Lord, they lose their vitality, as an arm sep¬ 
arated from the body. 

FAITH IN THE LORD. 

Sincere faith in the Divine character of the Lord, Jesus 
Christ, opens the mind to spiritual light, and enables the man 
to become spiritually intelligent. Without such faith, a man 
lives in natural light, only, and does not rise to spiritual light. 
Hence, the acknowledgment of the Lord, Jesus Christ, as 
the God of heaven and earth, is, truly, the entrance through 
the door, into spiritual life. “ No man cometh to the Father, 
but by Me i. e ., no one can comprehend and approach the 
Divine Love, except by means of the Divine Truth, which 
makes known the Divine character and personality. Through 
the Lord, men “enter in” to interior, spiritual life, and “go 
out” into practical natural life, led, taught, and protected, 
by the Divine Shepherd, and finding heavenly pasture, in 
the daily duties of active life. They “ enter in ” to the in¬ 
terior understanding of the Divine character, and “go out” 


528 Parables of the New Testament. 

into application of heavenly principles to practical deeds of 
daily conduft. 


GIVING UP LIFE. 

Jesus, as a good Shepherd, gave His life for the sheep, 
in the assumption and glorification of His Humanity; in the 
death of all that was born of Mary, and the conjun< 5 fion of 
the Divine Human with the Divine, itself. In this, we have 
an example of our need to die, as to evil, that we may live, 
spiritually. False and evil principles, “thieves and robbers,” 
come to men, to deprive them of all good and truth; but 
the Lord came, to give men more good and truth, and 
to save them from evil and falsity. 

HIRELINGS. 

In the letter of the parable, there is a comparison 
between the Lord, as the good Shepherd, and the leaders 
of the Jews, as evil shepherds, or hirelings. “He shall 
feed His flock, like a shepherd : He shall gather the lambs 
with His arms, and carry them in His bosom; and shall 
gently lead those that are with young.” But a hireling 
is one who works for the hire, and not for the good that 
he can do. A good man, though he is properly paid for 
his work, loves to be useful. The pay is not the end in 
view, in his life, but only a means of doing good. So, 
a spiritual-minded man eats food, and properly enjoys it; 
but he does not live to eat, but, rather, eats that he may 
live, and be useful. A hireling is one who loves self and 
the world, and who works for selfish and worldly ends. 
With him, worldly gain comes first; but, with the good 
man, gain is the servant, not the master. 

The hireling does not own the sheep; i. e ., he has no 
good principles adopted as his own principles of life, and 
embodied in his life. He cares nothing for the safety of 
the sheep. Such a hireling is one who has some knowl- 


The Good Shepherd. 


529 


edge of principles, but no real interest in them. And so, 
when evils arise, in himself, he does not resist these evils, 
but allows them, like wolves, to seize and to scatter what¬ 
ever beginnings of good and true principles the Lord has 
taught him. 


THE WOLF. 

The wolf is the love of false principles, which seizes 
the good, and scatters the truths, from the worldly mind. 
Thus, the wolf is in the sinner’s own heart: and when 
temptations arise, and evils and falses assail the mind, if 
the man is a hireling, who does not inwardly care for the 
spiritual sheep of good principles, he will not give up his 
selfish life, in defence of the spiritual sheep; but he will 
abandon the contest, and allow evil and false principles to 
rush in, and to destroy, whatever inclinations to good and 
truth the Lord had implanted in his mind. 

KNOWING, AND BEING KNOWN. 

The Lord knows His sheep, as His: they love Him, 
and abide in Him; and He gives them eternal life. But 
there were others, who boasted of their intimacy, with the 
Lord: and yet, when the judgment came, the Lord said 
to them, “I never knew you : depart from Me, ye that 
work iniquity.” And the Lord says, I “am known of 
Mine;” i. e., those who love the Lord, and follow Him 
in life, know Him as their Lord and Saviour. They re¬ 
quire no argument, and no dogma of human authority. 
They are like the Samaritans, who went out to see Jesus, 
at the call of the woman, but who afterwards said to the 
woman, “Now we believe, not because of thy saying; 
for we have heard Him, ourselves, and know that this is, 
indeed, the Christ, the Saviour of the world.” 

Worldly men argue about Christ, and dispute about 
His credentials ; but spiritual men see and know Him, 


530 Parables of the New Testament. 

love Him, understand Him, and follow Him into the be¬ 
atitudes of spiritual Jife. Truth appeals to the spirit of 
man. External miracles compel the wonder of the senses. 
But miracles do not convince a man of spiritual truth. 
In the open soul, there is an ability to know truth, as 
truth, which far transcends any appeal to the senses. To 
the spiritual man, there is nothing more evident than 
truth, itself: it needs no endorsement from the outside. 

SIMPLICITY NEEDED. 

The great need of men is simplicity of spirit, a con¬ 
dition of humble, loving, docile heart, following the Lord 
in the path of life, without self-will, without feverish ex¬ 
citement, without selfish ambition, without craving for 
adventure ; satisfied with the daily performance of uses, 
under the care of the Good Shepherd. As the Divine 
Father acknowledged the Humanity, and as the Humanity 
reciprocally acknowledged the Divine Father, by becom¬ 
ing one with Him through glorification of the Humanity ; 
so the Lord, as the good Shepherd, acknowledges His 
sheep; and, in their measure and degree, His sheep ac¬ 
knowledge Him, and become one with Him, in the regen¬ 
eration. 


THE OTHER FOLD. 

In one sense, the Lord’s sheep-fold are those who are 
in the Church ; and His other sheep, not of this fold, are 
the Gentiles, not yet gathered into the Church, but yet 
to be instructed and led. In a more exact sense, the two 
folds are the kingdoms of the Lord, the celestial and the 
spiritual, which yet form one grand heaven. The spirit¬ 
ual heaven was formed by the Lord, at His coming in the 
flesh, when a judgment cleared the intermediate world of 
spirits, and a spiritual heaven was formed of many who 
had long been waiting in the world of spirits. And thus 


The Good Shepherd. 


53i 


the Lord came to gather those who were not of the celes¬ 
tial sheep-fold, but who could then be formed into a spir¬ 
itual heaven, under the one Shepherd, in whose sight the 
whole heaven is one grand sheep-fold. 

TAKING UP LIFE. 

Jesus laid down His life, that He might take it, again. 
So, in the regeneration, we lay down our natural, selfish, 
worldly life, that we may take up a new, spiritual, heav¬ 
enly life. ‘ ‘ Whosoever will save his life, shall lose it: 
and whosoever will lose his life for My sake, shall find 
it.” And, indeed, how often it is the case, that we draw 
nearer to our Lord, and trust in Him more implicitly, in 
times of trial and sorrow, than in hours of apparent pros¬ 
perity. We can almost feel His great, yet tender, arm, 
lifting us over the hardest places in the path. Often, with 
us, as with the sheep in Palestine, the greenest pasture 
lies upon the southern ridges of the steep and rocky hills. 
Strength, courage, and endurance are needed, to reach 
them. But the Divine Shepherd leads us according to 
our strength, and gives us all the strength that we will 
exert ourselves to use. 


532 


Parables of the New Testame?it 


XL. 

€f)c Bute ant) its 25 rancl)cs. 

(JOHN XV. I-IO.) 

DIVINE AND HUMAN LIFE. 


SUMMARY. 

The Divine Love is the Life of the universe, the Father 
of all things. “In Him we live, and move, and have our 
being.” Creation lives only by and in its connexion with 
Him as the one, only Source of Life. 

THE REPRESENTATIVE MEANING. 

The parable presents the case of a vine planted and 
enred for by the husbandman. Growing trees and other 
plants represent the growing principles in the minds of men. 
The husbandman is the Father, the Divine Good, the Divine 
Love, the Essential Divinity, which inwardly dwelt in the 
Humanity of Jesus Christ. The Humanity is the Divine 
Truth, or Divine Wisdom. In the glorification, the Di¬ 
vine Humanity was united with the Father, or Essential 
Divinity, in the one Person of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the 
one, only God. “ I and the Father are one.” “ He that hath 
seen Me, hath seen the Father.” Love is the indwelling life 
of truth. So, Love and Truth are two, in us, until united in 
regeneration. 


THE VINE. 


The Lord, Jesus Christ is the “true Vine,” because He is 



The Vine and its Branches . 


533 


the Divine Truth, embodying and manifesting the Divine 
Love. He is the one God, in one Person, but known to 
man in the three aspedfs, of Love, Wisdom and Power. 
Only in Christianity, and especially in the New-Church, can 
the character of the Lord Jesus Christ be intelligently under¬ 
stood. He is the “true Vine,” the Divine Truth, inwardly 
tilled with the Divine Love, the Father, and one with Him. 

THE VINEYARD. 

The vineyard is the church, in man’s mind. “ The vine¬ 
yard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel.” The vine 
in the vineyard, is the Lord’s truth in the Church; i. e ., in 
the minds of men who are in the Church. The Lord, as the 
personification of the Divine Truth, is the “ true Vine,” planted 
in the world, by the Divine Love. Truth is derived from 
Love, as a son from a father. As the husbandman plants 
the vine, so the Father, or Divine Love, brought forth the 
Divine Human, and planted it in the world, to form a Church, 
for the salvation of men. As the husbandman cares for the 
vine, so the Divine Love takes care of the Divine Humanity, 
the Divine Truth. “I, the Lord, do keep it. I water it, 
every moment. Lest any hurt it, I will keep it, night and 
day.” The Divine Love, through the Divine Humanity, 
dwells in all the truth that we know, and operates that truth. 
Truth, alone, has no vitality : its life is from the Divine Love, 
dwelling in it. 


PRUNING THE VINE. 

In the vineyard, the husbandman goes about, cutting off 
dead branches; and trimming the living branches, to bring 
them into the best condition. So, in our minds, the Lord 
plants His vine of truth, and cares for it. He seeks to take 
away all the dead things of evil and falsity, and by discipline, 
to purge, or purify, what is good in us, that it may become 
even better. 


534 


Parables of the New Testament. 


THE BRANCHES. 

As regards the Lord, Jesus Christ, in his Humanity, the 
branches were His human affe< 5 lions, derived from His nat¬ 
ural mother. These were taken away, if dead ; and purified, 
if good, so as more fully to contain the indwelling Divine 
Life. But, as to man, every one who receives the truth is a 
branch of the Vine. His life branches out from the one Life 
of the universe. He receives life from the Lord, as a branch 
receives its life from the vine. 

It is the Lord’s presence in us that makes us branches of 
His Vine. The Church is called “the mystical body of the 
Lord.” In infancy, we are held in innocence, as branches 
of the Vine. But, as we mature, and assert self-will, the Lord 
operates to take away what is dead and evil, in us, and to 
lead us, through temptations, to become purer, and more 
fully alive, and more closely united with Him. 

SEPARATING FROM THE LORD. 

All who know truth, but do not love and practise it, sep¬ 
arate themselves from the Lord. The branches will not bear 
fruit, unless, in our minds and lives, the truth so operates as 
to grow to charity and love. The Lord does all He can, for 
every man. He gives the man all the good he will receive, 
and takes away all dead and evil things, as far as the man is 
willing to resist and shun evils. 

And happy are we, when we do not resist our Lord’s 
work of taking away our dead evils, and of purifying our 
partial good; when we lovingly and cheerfully accept the 
trials and discipline of life, as means of leading us out of evil, 
and further into good. Divine Love comes to us, in the 
truth: and if we favorably regard the truth, and obey it, 
the Lord will lead us to greater good. 


The Vine and its Branches. 


535 


THE LORD IN MAN. 

The Vine of truth is in each man, in such manner as the 
Lord can dwell in him, in the man’s conscious life of inten¬ 
tion, thought and a< 5 L Every circumstance of our life is 
nicely adjusted to our spiritual needs; to the pruning and 
purifying of our branches. The Lord’s vine, implanted in 
our minds, becomes, in us, what we are willing to have it 
become. It is different, in different men; and in the same 
man, in different stages of his progress. Thus our growth 
in regeneration, is a growth in the process of pruning and 
purifying the vine of truth, in us. And our care of the vine 
of truth is our treatment of our Lord, Himself. For He, as 
the Divine Truth, is the Vine in us. And so we might read 
the text thus, “ Every branch that beareth not fruit in Me 
for the genuine fruit of truth is goodness, and that goodness 
is the Lord’s presence in us, when we abide in Him, and He 
abides in 11s. 


PURGING THE VINE. 

Every step, or stage, in our progress, is not final, but 
progressive; it is but a preparation for further progress. 
“ He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit,” greater 
in quantity, and better in quality. Our stages of spiritual 
progress are represented by the varied journey of the Isra¬ 
elites, from Egypt to Canaan, conquering, to-day, but to go 
on to greater conquests, further in the journey. While we 
are looking upon our trials as misfortunes, how greatly it 
would remove their sting, to remember that they are per¬ 
mitted purgings of our vine, to increase our spiritual fruitful¬ 
ness. The redeemed pass through great tribulation. If we 
would try, one tenth as hard, to resist our evils, as we try to 
escape their discipline, we should soon be free from them. 


536 


Parables of the New Testament . 


CLEAN, THROUGH THE WORD. 

“Now ye are clean, through the Word which I have 
spoken unto you.” We cannot know the Lord, except as 
He reveals Himself to us. He makes His holy Word the 
medium of life to us, by revealing to us, in it, the principles 
of Divine and Human life. The literal sense of the Divine 
Word reaches the outward life of our senses; and the in¬ 
ward, spiritual sense leads us to spiritual intelligence. Thus, 
by His Word, the Lord leads us upward and inward, ele¬ 
vating our thoughts, purifying our affections, and setting our 
conduct in order; pruning and purging our mental vine; 
leading us to reject, and to resist, every feeling, thought and 
act that is not in agreement with the spirit of the Divine 
Truth. 

Not natural water, nor natural blood, can spiritually 
cleanse us, but the Truth of the Lord’s Word. And the 
secret of the symbolic meaning is this : the letter of the Word 
of God is figuratively called water, and the spiritual sense is 
figuratively called blood. Water represents natural truth, 
truth as applied to the conduct. So, baptism is with water, 
for representing a cleansing of the outward life. But the 
holy supper is with the spiritual blood of the Lord, the 
Divine Truth: and, literally, with wine, called “the blood 
of the grape,” to represent spiritual truth. 

ABIDING IN THE LORD. 

“Abide in Me, and I in you.” The Lord is the indwell¬ 
ing life of all things. But, for men to receive that life, they 
must abide in the Lord, so that His life can abide in them, 
as the branches of the vine must live by their connection 
with the vine, itself. And the quantity and quality of life, in 
every man, must be according to his relation to the Lord. 
The branch can merely use the life supplied to it by the vine. 
And so we bear good fruit, only in the measure and manner 
in which we use the life supplied to us by the Lord. And 


The Vine and its Branches. 


537 


what the Lord can impart to us, depends upon the quantity 
and quality of our love to the Lord, and, thus, on our open¬ 
ness to receive what He seeks to give. What the regen¬ 
erate man does, he does from the Lord. But, without the 
Lord, no man can do any good. 

Thus, the closer and more perfect our union with the 
Lord, in heart and in life, the greater will be our fruitfulness, 
and the better the quality of our fruit. As our Lord reveals 
Himself in His holy Word, so, without His Word, we can 
do nothing that is good, because we cannot know anything 
of spiritual principles. There is nothing in ourselves to sus¬ 
tain our life. Life is supplied to us, by our Lord, moment 
by moment, as a stream flows from its fountain; as the sap 
in the branch comes from the vine; as the blood in the body 
circulates from the heart. The branch brings forth like the 
vine : so men bring forth good, like the Lord ; i. e ., it is gen¬ 
uine good, in so far as it is the Lord’s life circulating in 
them. 


CAST OUT, ETC., ETC. 

“ If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth, as a branch, 
and is withered.” Ceasing to maintain connection with the 
Source of life, he loses the supply of life. He is cast out, 
not by the Lord, but by his own character. He casts himself 
out from the Vine, by refusing to abide in it. 

“And men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and 
they are burned.” Evil men are gathered, when their own 
evil afleCtions gather themselves together in the central prin¬ 
ciple of self-love. They are brought into spiritual association 
with those, in the spiritual world, who are like themselves, 
in quality. They are cast into the fires of their own fiery 
evil passions, the fires of their self-made hells. In these fires 
of unholy lusts, all heavenly things perish from them. The 
hells are not punishments, made by Divine wrath ; for, speak¬ 
ing spiritually, there is no such wrath: God is Love. The 
hells are the inevitable consequences of man’s reje6tion of 


533 


Parables of the New Testament. 


the blessings of the Divine Love, turning good into evil. God 
gives every man a heart, that he may love his brother-man : 
but the man who turns love to hatred makes a hell in his 
own heart. “ I have set before thee, this day, life and good, 
and death and evil.” Life and good are in the use of what 
the Lord gives to men; and death and evil are in their 
abuse. 


ASKING WHAT WE WILL. 

“ If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall 
ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” When a 
man’s whole life, inwardly and outwardly, in intention and 
in aCt, is formed in accordance with the Divine laws of spir¬ 
itual and natural life, he abides in the Lord, as a branch in 
the vine. And the stream of Divine life flows into the man, 
and through him, filling and blessing him. Thus, the whole 
power of the heavens operates in and through the man, and 
gives him power to do what he desires to do. In this state, 
the man is held in heavenly order. He wills to be, and to 
do, as the Lord wills. He loves to be led by the Lord. All 
his desires are such as come to him from the Lord. He can 
have all that he wills, because he wills such things, only, as 
are in agreement with heavenly life. He has power over 
evils and falses, because, in him, the heavens are present, to 
control the hells. He is taught from the Lord’s Word, and 
thus, from the Lord, Himself, who is in His Word. 

In this man’s beautiful life, the beatitudes of heaven give 
perfect satisfaction. Every desire flows from the Divine 
Love; every thought from the Divine Wisdom; every a< 5 t 
from the Divine Power. There is nothing in heaven that he 
cannot have, if he desires it; and there is nothing outside 
of heaven that he would be willing to have. Can you imag¬ 
ine a more desirable condition than one in which you can 
have every want satisfied, freely and fully? 


The Vine and its Branches. 


539 


SECURING OUR DESIRES. 

And how can a man secure all that he wants ? Only in 
one of two ways: either he must have power to conquer all 
opposing forces, and to acquire all that he naturally desires; 
or he must acknowledge some standard of right, and sub¬ 
mit his desires to this test. Either he must be able to have 
all that he wants, or he must bring himself to want only what 
he can have. Now, it is very easy to see that no man can 
subdue the universe, and control its laws, and make his own 
will master of all things. 

But he can succeed in having all that he wants, by a sim¬ 
ple change in himself. If he will abide in the Lord, and 
submit his self-will to the Divine will; his thoughts to the 
Divine truth; and his condu< 5 t to the Lord’s commandments ; 
he will come to desire nothing that he should not have. And 
then he may ask what he will, and it shall be done unto him, 
because he will ask what the Lord loves to give. A regen¬ 
erate, heavenly nature will not ask anything except what is 
heavenly, and such things he can freely have, in all the 
abundance that he can use. As a branch of the vine, he has 
the benefit of all the life that circulates through the vine. 
How great, then, the wisdom of angels, in abiding in the 
Lord; and how great the folly of devils, in resisting the 
Lord’s mercy. 


CHARACTERISTIC DESIRES. 

The Lord, in love, refrains from doing, for evil man, what 
they desire; for such satisfa&ion would only sink them 
deeper into misery. At each stage of a man’s life, he craves 
what agrees with his present nature. As his nature changes, 
his wants change. Everything desires according to its or¬ 
ganization. The eye longs for light, and the ear for sound. 
The fish seeks water, and the bird seeks the air; the herds 
and the flocks desire pasture, and the carnivorous beasts 


540 


Parables of the New Testament. 


demand flesh and blood. Everything utters a cry for the 
things that feed its nature. 

By the same law, the devils madly cry for revenge and 
filth, and the angels gently pray for love and purity. But, 
while the devils must be restrained, in their insane follies, the 
angels cannot breathe a desire which is not promptly and 
fully gratified. “ No good will He withhold from them that 
walk uprightly.’ 


SATISFACTION. 

And it is a glorious truth, that the way to full satisfaction 
of our desires is not through the subduing of all things to 
our self-will, but in the submission of our self-will to the com¬ 
mandments of our Lord. We are in disorder, and estranged 
from the beneficent laws of human organization. And the 
universe seems to be opposed to our individual desires. But, 
as soon as we curb our self-will, and return to the laws of 
heavenly order, the whole universe turns to greet us as a 
friend, and lays at our feet every gift that we can desire. 

Men were created for a heavenly life; and, as soon as 
they enter into that life, the door of a new world opens, 
and they find themselves just beginning truly to live. And 
then they may have whatever they will, for the Lord moves 
them to ask, as He moves the fish to ask for water, or the 
eye to seek the light. In fa< 5 t, the Lord has already provided 
for men all that they can ask. See the whole universe, spir¬ 
itual and natural, created for a home for men, and supplied 
with all things necessary to the human organization. And 
those who use, without abusing, the gifts of the Lord, may 
ask what they will, and it shall be done unto them. The 
only conditions are, that they shall abide in the Lord, and 
keep His commandments; for, without these conditions, men 
cannot attain a state of life in which they can receive heavenly 
blessings. 


The Vine and its Branches . 


541 


BEARING FRUIT. 

“ Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; 
so shall ye be My disciples.” The Father is glorified, when 
the Divine Love is manifested in the lives of His children. 
“ Let your light so shine among men, that they may see your 
good works, and may glorify your Father who is in heaven.” 
And where is heaven, but in the human soul. Those who 
truly keep the Lord’s commandments, exalt the Father, the 
Divine Love, in their own hearts and lives; and they bear 
testimony, by their example, as genuine disciples, seeking, 
in their own condu6t, to exhibit the goodness of the Lord. 

No truth becomes living, in us, until we practise it; until 
it bears fruit. The seed, which perpetuates, is not in the 
blossom, but in the fruit. How often we see a beautiful 
truth, as a sentiment. We talk of it, and think of it. But, 
if we do not pradlise it, in our daily life, of what value is 
it, to us? “Every branch .... that beareth not fruit, He 
taketh away.” 


UNFRUITFUL BRANCHES. 

It is a serious truth, that we do not embody any princi¬ 
ple in our spiritual organization, as our own, until we put it 
into a6tual practice. The things that we have been pleased 
with, but have not practised, will, in the judgment, be lopped 
off, as dead branches, bearing no fruit for spiritual life. 

IN THE lord’s LOVE. 

“As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you: 
continue ye in My love.” As the Divinity is united with the 
Humanity, by love, so the Divine Human is united, by love, 
with all who lovingly live by the Divine Truth. The Divine 
Love flows into the Divine Truth, and the Divine Truth 
comes down to men, bearing, in its bosom, the Divine Love. 


542 Parables of the New Testament. 

As the Divine Love makes the Divine Truth to be what it 
is, so the Divine Truth, as a Vine, sends forth the Divine 
Life into all its human branches. We continue in the Lord’s 
love, when we continue to love the Lord; for the Lord al¬ 
ways abides in all who are willing to receive Him. 

KEEPING THE COMMANDMENTS. 

“If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My 
love; even as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and 
abide in His love.” Thus, union with the Lord is pradli- 
cally effedted by obedience to the Divine Truth, as known, 
as the assumed Human was united with the Divine, by ful¬ 
filling the Divine will. All human knowledge and wisdom, 
to be fruit-bearing, must lead the man to shun evils, as sins, 
and to keep the Lord’s commandments. “All religion re¬ 
lates to life, and the religious life is to do good.” Thus, by 
keeping the commandments, men become images and like¬ 
nesses of the Lord. For the commandments are an expres¬ 
sion of the Divine Life. As far as a man loves good, and 
does good, according to the Lord’s commandments, so 
far does he love the Lord. All evil is opposed to the Lol'd, 
and to genuine human life. Keeping the Divine command¬ 
ments, the Divine Love will flow into our hearts and lives, 
filling them with new and expanding life, branching out, 
more and more fully, towards the full “ measure of a man, 
that is. of an angel.” 

TRUTH IN THE LIFE. 

As novitiates, we found the truth very interesting. We 
could talk of little else. And if it has now become an old 
story, then that truth is not bearing fruit in our lives, as it 
should do. Our branch needs pruning and purifying. We 
are cultivating some dead things, that do not belong on the 
Lord’s vine. The great question is, not how much truth do 


The Vine and its Branches. 


543 


we know, in quantity; but what is the quality of our love, 
and of our life. If we are losing our interest in the truth, 
we are not abiding in the Vine, and its life is not flowing into 
us, and producing good fruit. Something, in us, is stopping 
the flow of the vine’s life. 

Thus, our real interest in the truth, our work for the 
truth, and our willingness to put away every desire and 
thought that is opposed to the truth, are as mental ther¬ 
mometers, measuring the degree of our advance, or our 
backsliding, in the life of the Church. If we have kept up 
our interest in the truth, it will be like a growing branch of 
a great vine, daily sending forth new shoots, new blossoms, 
new fruits. “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not 
consumed, because His compassions fail not: they are new 
every morning.” 

TRUTHS OF THE NEW-CHURCH. 

To the soul that feels their renewing influence, in the 
growth of a new and better life, the truths of the Church, 
drawn from the Word of God, never grow old and stale. 
Truths grow stale to those who negledt to use them. Every 
new step upward and inward presents the two worlds, of nat¬ 
ure and of spirit, in new lights and phases; exhibiting, to the 
ever growing soul, new views of the goodness and mercy of 
the Lord. “O Lord, by these things men live, and in all 
these things is the life of my spirit.” Truth that is loved and 
lived never grows old, or rusty. Use keeps the truths alive, 
in us, as exercise strengthens our bodily muscles. The grow¬ 
ing vine of truth is ever becoming new, shedding old branches, 
and putting forth new ones, moved by the inward force of 
expanding love. 

It is a great privilege to know the dodlrines of the New- 
Church, opening the inward meaning of the Divine Word. 
But our responsibility is increased by our knowledge. And 
it is a fearful thing to lose interest in these grand and heavenly 


544 Parables of the New Testament. 

truths. To lose interest in these truths, is to lose interest in 
the higher and holier life to which they point. “ Create, in 
me, a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within 

^ n 

me. 

If we find these grand truths less interesting to us than 
they have been, it will be a serious mistake to lay the fault 
to our numerous worldly cares, or to any other external cir¬ 
cumstances. The more our cares, the more we need the 
truth, to dire 6 l us. But, we shall need to look into our own 
hearts, for the cause of our indifference. If we lose interest 
in the truths of our Lord, we lose interest in our Lord, Him¬ 
self. But our Lord said, “If ye keep My commandments, 
ye shall abide in My love.” 





















































































































































































































































































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